Spatiotemporal variations in nutritional status and feeding habits of immature female bighand thornyhead Sebastolobus macrochir off the Pacific coast of northern Honshu, Japan

The diet and the feeding habits of the common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Pacific coast of Ecuador was assessed by examining 320 stomachs of individuals ranging from 51 to 149 cm in total length. Fish was the predominant prey group in the diet (Alimentary Index, %AI = 95.39) followed by cephalopods (%AI = 4.13) and crustaceans (%AI = 0.48). Among the 17 prey items that make up the dolphinfish diet, the Exocoetidae family was the most important prey (%AI = 57.13), Dosidicus gigas being the most abundant invertebrate species (%AI = 7.65). Feeding patterns were evaluated using the graphing method of Amundsen, which suggested that this species shows a varying degree of specialization on different prey taxa. Thus, while some species were unimportant and rare (Hippocampus hippocampus, Lagocephalus lagocephalus, Gobiidae and Argonauta sp.), several dolphinfishes showed a high degree of specialization on Scombridae, Pleuroncodes planipes, Portunus xantusii and Opisthonema libertate. Size-related and temporal shifts in dietary composition were investigated by PERMANOVA analysis, which showed wide variations among size classes and periods of capture. The results of this study indicate that the common dolphinfish is an opportunistic feeder, which is capable of consuming a wide variety of schooling epipelagic organisms.

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Seasonal and Bathymetric Changes in Feeding Habits of the Benthic Red Crab Pleuroncodes Planipes (Decapoda, Anomura, Galatheidae) Off the Pacific Coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico

Crustaceana ◽

10.1163/156854097x00573 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 70 (3) ◽

pp. 272-287 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

David Aurioles-Gamboa ◽

Ricardo Pérez-Flores

Keyword(s):

Baja California ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Feeding Habits ◽

Baja California Sur ◽

The Pacific ◽

Bathymetric Changes

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Feeding habits of the Pacific bearded brotula Brotula clarkae Hubbs, 1944 (Ophidiidae) along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Central America

Journal of Applied Ichthyology ◽

10.1111/jai.13029 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 439-447 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B. Naranjo-Elizondo ◽

M. Espinoza ◽

M. Herrera ◽

T. M. Clarke ◽

I. S. Wehrtmann

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Central America ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Feeding Habits ◽

The Pacific

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Plesiosaur ancestors from the upper permian of Madagascar

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1981.0079 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 293 (1066) ◽

pp. 315-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 66

Keyword(s):

Pacific Coast ◽

Feeding Habits ◽

Upper Permian ◽

Postcranial Skeleton ◽

Aquatic Locomotion ◽

Tectonic Environment ◽

The Pacific ◽

Marine Iguanas ◽

Phosphate Source ◽

Rift Valleys

Numerus well preserved fossils from the Upper Permian of Madagascar are structurally intermediate between primitive diapsid reptiles and nothosaurs and plesiosaurs. Claudiosaurus germaini (gen.nov., sp.nov.) is similar in its basic anatomy to eosuchian reptiles such as Thadeosaurus colcanapi (gen.nov., sp.nov.), but the absence of a lower temporal bar and the closure of the palate are characteristics of sauropterygian reptiles. Claudiosaurus shows the initiation of aquatic adaptations in the proportions and reduced ossification of the carpus and manus. A third pair of sacral ribs is partially incorporated. The small size of the skull, the nature of the palate and marginal dentition and the long neck are suggestive of aquatic feeding habits. Claudiosaurus does not, however, show the specific adaptations for aquatic locomotion seen in either nothosaurs or plesiosaurs. Even the most primitive known species of nothosaurs and plesiosaurs are too specialized in the postcranial skeleton for direct comparison with Claudiosaurs , although the similarities to the skull roof of primitive nothosaurs are very close. The configuration of the cheek in nothosaurs almost certainly resulted from the loss of the lower temporal bar from a pattern like that of Youngina , rather than from the ventral emargination of the cheek. The nature of the Upper Permian sediments in Madagascar and the tectonic environment of their deposition indicate accumulation in deep rift valleys, some parts of which were open to the sea. The presence of oolites replaced with collophane suggests a rich phosphate source such as deep marine upwellings. Similar upwellings of phosphate have also been associated with the evolution of the marine iguanas on the Pacific coast of South America. The concept of the derivation of nothosaurs from protorosaurs or araeosceloids may be traced to misunderstandings of the nature of the cheek in both Nothosaurus and Protorosaurus . Araeoscelis , despite the possession of a solid cheek, is closely related to Petrolacosaurus , an ancestral diapsid.

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