An electromyographic analysis of the biting mechanism of the lemon shark, Negaprion Brevirostris: Functional and evolutionary implications.

Abstract

The kinetics of the head and function of select jaw muscles were studied during biting behavior in the lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris. High speed cinematography and electromyography of seven cranial muscles were recorded during bites elicited by a probe to the oral cavity. In weak bites mandible depression was followed by mandible elevation and jaw closure without cranial elevation. In strong bites cranial elevation always preceded lower jaw depression, lower jaw elevation, and cranial depression. The average duration of the strong bites was rapid (176 msec), considering the size of the animal relative to other fishes. Different electromyographic patterns distinguished the two forms of bite, primarily in activity of the epaxial muscles, which effect cranial elevation. A composite reconstruction of the activity of seven cranial muscles during biting revealed that epaxial muscle activity and consequently cranial elevation preceded all other muscle activity. Mandible depression was primarily effected by contraction of the common coracoarcual and coracomandibularis, with assistance by the coracohyoideus. Simultaneous activity of the levator hyomandibulae is believed to increase the width of the orobranchial chamber. The adductor mandibulae dorsal was the primary jaw adductor assisted by the adductor mandibulae ventral. This biomechanically conservative mechanism for jaw opening in aquatic vertebrates is conserved, with the exception of the coracomandibularis, which is homologous to prehyoid muscles of salamanders.