scholarly journals Feeding mechanism and functional morphology of the jaws of the lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris (Chondrichthyes, Carcharhinidae)

1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (21) ◽  
pp. 2765-2780 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Motta ◽  
T Tricas ◽  
R Summers

This study tests the hypothesis that preparatory, expansive, compressive and recovery phases of biting behavior known for aquatically feeding anamniotes are conserved among extant elasmobranch fishes. The feeding mechanism of the lemon shark Negaprionbrevirostris is examined by anatomical dissection, electromyography and high-speed video analysis. Three types of feeding events are differentiated during feeding: (1) food ingestion primarily by ram feeding; (2) food manipulation; and (3) hydraulic transport of the food by suction. All feeding events are composed of the expansive, compressive and recovery phases common to aquatically feeding teleost fishes, salamanders and turtles. A preparatory phase is occasionally observed during ingestion bites, and there is no fast opening phase characteristic of some aquatically feeding vertebrates. During the compressive phase, palatoquadrate protrusion accounts for 26% of the gape distance during jaw closure and is concurrent with muscle activity in the dorsal and ventral preorbitalis and the levator palatoquadrati. Hydraulic transport events are shorter in duration than ram ingestion bites. Prey ingestion, manipulation and hydraulic transport events are all found to have a common series of kinematic and motor components. Individual sharks are capable of varying the duration and to a lesser extent the onset of muscle activity and, consequently, can vary their biting behavior. We propose a model for the feeding mechanism in carcharhinid sharks, including upper jaw protrusion. This study represents the first electromyographic and kinematic analysis of the feeding mechanism and behavior of an elasmobranch.

1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (23) ◽  
pp. 3167-3183 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. D. Wilga ◽  
P. J. Motta

The kinematics and muscle activity pattern of the head and jaws during feeding in the Atlantic guitarfish Rhinobatos lentiginosus are described and quantified using high-speed video and electromyography to test hypotheses regarding the conservation and modulation of the feeding mechanism. Prey is captured by the guitarfish using suction. Suction capture, bite manipulation and suction transport behaviors in the guitarfish are similar to one another in the relative sequence of kinematic and motor activity, but can be distinguished from one another by variation in absolute muscle activation time, in the presence or absence of muscle activity and in the duration of muscle activity. A novel compression transport behavior was observed that is strikingly different from the other feeding behaviors and has not been described previously in elasmobranchs. The mechanism of upper jaw protrusion in the guitarfish differs from that described in other elasmobranchs. Muscle function and motor pattern during feeding are similar in the plesiomorphic cranial muscles in the guitarfish and the spiny dogfish probably because of their shared ancestral morphology. Modulation in recruitment of jaw and hyoid depressor muscles among feeding behaviors in the guitarfish may be a consequence of duplication of muscles and decoupling of the jaws and hyoid apparatus in batoids.


1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (9) ◽  
pp. 1345-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Wilga ◽  
P Motta

Changes in the feeding mechanism with feeding behavior were investigated using high-speed video and electromyography to examine the kinematics and motor pattern of prey capture, manipulation and transport in the spiny dogfish Squalus acanthias (Squalidae: Squaliformes). In this study, Squalus acanthias used both suction and ram behaviors to capture and manipulate prey, while only suction was used to transport prey. The basic kinematic feeding sequence observed in other aquatic-feeding lower vertebrates is conserved in the spiny dogfish. Prey capture, bite manipulation and suction transport events are characterized by a common pattern of head movements and motor activity, but are distinguishable by differences in duration and relative timing. In general, capture events are longer in duration than manipulation and transport events, as found in other aquatic-feeding lower vertebrates. Numerous individual effects were found, indicating that individual sharks are capable of varying head movements and motor activity among successful feeding events. Upper jaw protrusion in the spiny dogfish is not restricted by its orbitostylic jaw suspension; rather, the upper jaw is protruded by 30 % of its head length, considerably more than in the lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris (Carcharhinidae: Carcharhiniformes) (18 %) with its hyostylic jaw suspension. One function of upper jaw protrusion is to assist in jaw closure by protruding the upper jaw as well as elevating the lower jaw to close the gape, thus decreasing the time to jaw closure. The mechanism of upper jaw protrusion was found to differ between squaliform and carcharhiniform sharks. Whereas the levator palatoquadrati muscle assists in retracting the upper jaw in the spiny dogfish, it assists in protruding the upper jaw in the lemon shark. This study represents the first comprehensive electromyographic and kinematic analysis of the feeding mechanism in a squaliform shark.


2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (22) ◽  
pp. 3905-3916
Author(s):  
Christopher P. J. Sanford

SUMMARY The tongue-bite apparatus (TBA) of salmonids represents an impressive novel feeding mechanism. The TBA consists of a set of well-developed teeth on the dorsal surface of the anterior hyoid (basihyal) and an opposing set of teeth on the roof of the mouth (vomer). A kinematic analysis of behaviors associated with the TBA in the brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis was performed using high-speed video (250 frames s–1). Two distinct behaviors were identified, raking and open-mouth chewing. Univariate analysis demonstrated that these behaviors were significantly different from one another. The power stroke of raking is characterized by significantly greater neurocranial elevation (raking, 36°; open-mouth chewing, 16°) and retraction of the pectoral girdle (raking, 0.85 cm or 21 % of head length; open-mouth chewing, 0.41 cm or 10 % of head length). Open-mouth chewing is characterized predominantly by dorso-ventral excursions of the anterior hyoid (open-mouth chewing, 0.26 cm; raking, 0.14 cm). Raking is significantly shorter in duration (mean 49 ms) than open-mouth chewing (mean 77 ms). When presented with three different types of prey (crickets, fish or worms), Salvelinus fontinalis showed no variation in raking behavior, indicating that raking is highly stereotyped. In contrast, when feeding on worms, Salvelinus fontinalis modulated open-mouth chewing behavior with shorter durations to maximum displacement (at least 20 ms shorter than for either fish or cricket), although the magnitude of displacements did not vary. The reasons for the shorter duration of displacement variables while feeding on worms remains unclear. During post-capture processing behaviors in Salvelinus fontinalis, the magnitude of displacement variables is highly variable between individuals, but temporal patterns are not. This study characterizes two novel post-capture feeding behaviors and modulation of those behaviors in salmonids.


2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (17) ◽  
pp. 2591-2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric D. Tytell ◽  
George V. Lauder

SUMMARYThe fast-start escape response is the primary reflexive escape mechanism in a wide phylogenetic range of fishes. To add detail to previously reported novel muscle activity patterns during the escape response of the bichir, Polypterus, we analyzed escape kinematics and muscle activity patterns in Polypterus senegalus using high-speed video and electromyography (EMG). Five fish were filmed at 250 Hz while synchronously recording white muscle activity at five sites on both sides of the body simultaneously (10 sites in total). Body wave speed and center of mass velocity, acceleration and curvature were calculated from digitized outlines. Six EMG variables per channel were also measured to characterize the motor pattern. P. senegalus shows a wide range of activity patterns, from very strong responses, in which the head often touched the tail, to very weak responses. This variation in strength is significantly correlated with the stimulus and is mechanically driven by changes in stage 1 muscle activity duration. Besides these changes in duration, the stage 1 muscle activity is unusual because it has strong bilateral activity, although the observed contralateral activity is significantly weaker and shorter in duration than ipsilateral activity. Bilateral activity may stiffen the body, but it does so by a constant amount over the variation we observed; therefore, P. senegalus does not modulate fast-start wave speed by changing body stiffness. Escape responses almost always have stage 2 contralateral muscle activity, often only in the anterior third of the body. The magnitude of the stage 2 activity is the primary predictor of final escape velocity.


1993 ◽  
Vol 176 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Gatesy ◽  
K. P. Dial

The electrical activity of major caudal muscles of the pigeon (Columba livia) was recorded during five modes of aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Tail muscle electromyograms were correlated with movement using high-speed cinematography and compared to activity in selected muscles of the wings, legs and trunk. During walking, the pectoralis and most tail muscles are normally inactive, but levator muscle activity alternates with the striding legs. In flight, caudal muscles are phasically active with each wingbeat and undergo distinct changes in electromyographic pattern between liftoff, takeoff, slow level flapping and landing modes. The temporal flexibility of tail muscle activity differs significantly from the stereotypic timing of wing muscles in pigeons performing the same flight modes. These neural programs may represent different solutions to the control of flight surfaces in the rapidly oscillating wing and the relatively stationary caudal skeleton. Birds exhibit a novel alliance of tail and forelimb use during aerial locomotion. We suggest that there is evidence of anatomical and functional decoupling of the tail from adjacent hindlimb and trunk muscles during avian evolution to facilitate its specialization for rectricial control in flight.


1995 ◽  
Vol 226 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Motta ◽  
Cheryl A. D. Wilga

1994 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 2802-2813 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. O. Warner ◽  
M. J. Joyner ◽  
E. L. Ritman

Three anesthetics (pentobarbital, halothane, and isoflurane) were studied in six mongrel dogs to systematically compare their effects on chest wall function during spontaneous breathing. Each dog received each anesthetic on separate occasions. Electrical activities of several respiratory muscles were measured with chronically implanted electrodes, and chest wall motion was assessed by high-speed three-dimensional computed tomography scanning. Phasic expiratory muscle activity was markedly depressed by volatile anesthetics halothane and isoflurane compared with pentobarbital. In contrast, inspiratory activity in parasternal intercostal muscles was relatively well preserved during anesthesia with these volatile agents. The contribution of expiratory muscles to tidal volume was diminished during halothane and isoflurane compared with pentobarbital anesthesia. As anesthesia was deepened, expiratory muscle activity was unchanged during pentobarbital anesthesia, enhanced in some dogs during isoflurane anesthesia, and remained absent during halothane anesthesia. Activity in parasternal intercostal muscle was depressed as inspired concentration of halothane or isoflurane was increased, whereas diaphragmatic activity was unchanged. Depression of expiratory muscle activity by halothane persisted when breathing was stimulated by positive end-expiratory pressure, with significant mechanical consequences for chest wall configuration. Many of these findings are in contrast with previous observations in humans and suggest that the dog is not a suitable model for the study of the effects of anesthetic drugs on the pattern of human respiratory muscle activity.


Evolution ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 2332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Feldheim ◽  
Samuel H. Gruber ◽  
Mary V. Ashley

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document