The paper by Tran Xuan Loi (College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University), Kiyoshi Soyano (Institute for East China Sea Research, Organization for Marine Science and Technology, Nagasaki University), and Atsushi Ishimatsu (JICA CTU Project Office, Can Tho University; Emeritus Professor of Nagasaki University) has been offered the Rieger Award 2022: “Morphology of the feeding apparatus in two oxudercine gobies, Parapocryptes serperaster (Richardson 1846) and Pseudapocryptes elongatus (Cuvier 1816), Zoomorphology 141:186-196”.

In the study, the authors used anatomical features of the feeding apparatus of two mudskipper species together with the data of five other species published in their earlier paper, all inhabiting tidal flats of the Mekong Delta, to test the hypothesis of feeding transition during their niche expansion onto land. The study highlighted the similarities and differences between the morphological configurations and related them to their functions. The study provides valuable insight into how the feeding system was modified during the vertebrate transition from water to land in the Paleozoic Era.

The Rieger Award (honoring the achievements of the Austrian Zoologist Reinhard Rieger) is annually given to outstanding research in the field of zoomorphology by Springer Nature, the University of Innsbruck, Austria. The editorial board of Zoomorphology and an international selection committee make the selection.

For details of the study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00435-022-00554-8

(Information Team - College of Aquaculture and Fisheries)