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 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.
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Acknowledgements
This work was in-part supported by the Porter Family Foundation grant to EC. We thank Capt. Dave Zalewski and the crew of the Lucky Too charters, Rob Robins from the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Jayne Gardiner from New College of Florida for their generous support of specimens. This work is dedicated to David and Rebecca Carr. Animal welfare was approved under IACUC protocol number IS00005719 to PJM.
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Online Resource 1
One Way ANOVA results for normality tests (Shapiro-Wilk) and equal variance tests. Multiple comparison procedures (Holm-Sidak method) were performed for d1, d2, d3, and d7 in T. lepturus and d4 in C. limbatus. When equal variance tests failed, such as in d1 and d2 of S. malculatus and d3 of T. lepturus, data was added to one and log transformed. Equal variance tests for d2 of S. malculatus still failed after transformation so a Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted. (PNG 360 kb)
Online Resource 2
Equations and r2 values for regressions of inter-tooth distance as a percent of maximum gape against percent gape as shown in Fig. 1 and Online Resource 1. (PNG 700 kb)
Online Resource 3
Length of all teeth in the upper and lower jaws as a percent of total length. The missing values indicate that the number of teeth varied in upper and lower jaws. aS. maculatusbS. barracudacT. lepturusdC. limbatus. (PNG 1216 kb)
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Carr, E.M., Motta, P.J. Tooth length and occlusion in four species of piscivorous fishes: getting a grip on prey. Environ Biol Fish 103, 903–912 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00991-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00991-8