Dataset Information

Jaw protrusion enhances forces exerted on prey by suction feeding fishes.

ABSTRACT: The ability to protrude the jaws during prey capture is a hallmark of teleost fishes, widely recognized as one of the most significant innovations in their diverse and mechanically complex skull. An elaborated jaw protrusion mechanism has independently evolved multiple times in bony fishes, and is a conspicuous feature in several of their most spectacular radiations, ultimately being found in about half of the approximately 30000 living species. Variation in jaw protrusion distance and speed is thought to have facilitated the remarkable trophic diversity found across fish groups, although the mechanical consequences of jaw protrusion for aquatic feeding performance remain unclear. Using a hydrodynamic approach, we show that rapid protrusion of the jaws towards the prey, coupled with the spatial pattern of the flow in front of the mouth, accelerates the water around the prey. Jaw protrusion provides an independent source of acceleration from that induced by the unsteady flow at the mouth aperture, increasing by up to 35% the total force exerted on attached, escaping and free-floating passive prey. Despite initiating the strike further away, fishes can increase peak force on their prey by protruding their jaws towards it, compared with a 'non-protruding' state, where the distance to prey remains constant throughout the strike. The force requirements for capturing aquatic prey might have served as a selective factor for the evolution of jaw protrusion in modern fishes.

SUBMITTER: Holzman R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2607355 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Jaw protrusion enhances forces exerted on prey by suction feeding fishes.

Holzman Roi R Day Steven W SW Mehta Rita S RS Wainwright Peter C PC

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20081201 29

The ability to protrude the jaws during prey capture is a hallmark of teleost fishes, widely recognized as one of the most significant innovations in their diverse and mechanically complex skull. An elaborated jaw protrusion mechanism has independently evolved multiple times in bony fishes, and is a conspicuous feature in several of their most spectacular radiations, ultimately being found in about half of the approximately 30000 living species. Variation in jaw protrusion distance and speed is ...[more]

PMID: 18544504

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Project description:The complex interplay between form and function forms the basis for generating and maintaining organismal diversity. Fishes that rely on suction-feeding for prey capture exhibit remarkable phenotypic and trophic diversity. Yet the relationships between fish phenotypes and feeding performance on different prey types are unclear, partly because the morphological, biomechanical, and hydrodynamic mechanisms that underlie suction-feeding are complex. Here we demonstrate a general framework to investigate the mapping of multiple phenotypic traits to performance by mapping kinematic variables to suction-feeding capacity. Using a mechanistic model of suction-feeding that is based on core physical principles, we predict prey capture performance across a broad range of phenotypic trait values, for three general prey types: mollusk-like prey, copepod-like prey, and fish-like prey. Mollusk-like prey attach to surfaces, copepod-like prey attempt to escape upon detecting the hydrodynamic disturbance produced by the predator, and fish-like prey attempt to escape when the predator comes within a threshold distance. This approach allowed us to evaluate suction-feeding performance for any combination of six key kinematic traits, irrespective of whether these trait combinations were observed in an extant species, and to generate a multivariate mapping of phenotype to performance. We used gradient ascent methods to explore the complex topography of the performance landscape for each prey type, and found evidence for multiple peaks. Characterization of phenotypes associated with performance peaks indicates that the optimal kinematic parameter range for suction-feeding on different prey types are narrow and distinct from each other, suggesting different functional constraints for the three prey types. These performance landscapes can be used to generate hypotheses regarding the distribution of extant species in trait space and their evolutionary trajectories toward adaptive peaks on macroevolutionary fitness landscapes.

Dataset Information

Jaw protrusion enhances forces exerted on prey by suction feeding fishes.

Publications

Jaw protrusion enhances forces exerted on prey by suction feeding fishes.

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