Tooth length and occlusion in four species of piscivorous fishes: getting a grip on prey
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Tooth length and occlusion in four species of piscivorous fishes: getting a grip on prey Emily M. Carr & Philip J. Motta
Received: 16 December 2019 / Revised: 22 April 2020 / Accepted: 4 June 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Fitness is in part determined by the success of prey capture, often achieved in marine piscivores using teeth to capture and process prey. In ram feeding piscivores, a pattern of monognathic heterodonty has been observed where tooth size either increases posteriorly (Scomberomorus maculatus), or anteriorly (Carcharhinus limbatus), with exceptions such as Trichiurus lepturus and Sphyraena barracuda which have large anterior fangs. Tooth size and placement, as related to prey capture, was examined in Atlantic Spanish Mackerel (S. maculatus), Great Barracuda (S. barracuda), Atlantic Cutlassfish (T. lepturus), and the Blacktip shark (C. limbatus) by quantifying tooth occlusion along the jaw. Percent gape at occlusion in S. maculatus decreased anteriorly in a linear fashion, indicating occlusion from posterior to anterior. Therefore, prey initially contact the posterior teeth with high puncture pressure during high velocity strikes, capitalizing the region of greatest bite force. For S. barracuda and T. lepturus, posterior teeth and premaxillary fangs
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00991-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. E. M. Carr (*) : P. J. Motta Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected]
P. J. Motta e-mail: [email protected]
occlude at similar percent gapes (within 10%). The premaxillary fangs are likely used for initial capture due to the high angular velocity of the anterior section of the jaw and then for cutting, due to their laterally compressed shape. In C. limbatus all teeth occluded within a narrow range of 1.4–8.8% gape, indicating that all teeth meet at almost complete jaw closure. Simultaneous puncture of teeth prevents prey escape while maximizing the cutting area during head shaking. Thus, various tooth size and dentition patterns may yield similar success in prey capture, serving the same function. Keywords Prey capture . Ram feeding . Dentition . Heterodonty . Piscivorous fishes
Introduction Predation involves detecting the prey, orienting towards the prey, striking at the prey, capture of the prey, and finally deglutition (Curio 1976; Gardiner and Atema 2014). Prey capture in the majority of piscivore fishes includes ram feeding, suction feeding, and biting (Liem 1980; Wainwright et al. 2001; Motta and Huber 2012), although they are rarely used independently (Norton and Brainerd 1993; Wilga et al. 2007). The key to successful prey capture in many of these fishes is the shape, form, position and size of their dentition, although in some species such as the edentulous Northern Squawfish Ptychocheilus oregonensis, successful prey capture involves no teeth (Tabor et al.
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