Abstract
ABSTRACTSome species of durophagous moray eels (Muraenidae) have been documented emerging from the marine environment to capture intertidal crabs but how they consume prey out of water is unknown. Here, we trained snowflake morays, Echidna nebulosa, to undulate out of the aquatic environment to feed on land. On land, snowflake morays remove prey from the substrate by biting and swallow prey using pharyngeal jaw enabled transport. Although snowflake morays exhibit smaller jaw rotation angles on land when apprehending their prey, transport kinematics involving dorsoventral flexion of the head to protract the pharyngeal jaws and overall feeding times did not differ between terrestrial and aquatic treatments. We suggest that their elongate body plan, ability to rotate their heads in the dorsoventral and lateral directions, and extreme pharyngeal movements all contribute to the ability of durophagous morays to feed in the terrestrial environment.
Highlights
Many extant fish taxa are able to make terrestrial excursions (Johnels, 1957; Randall, 1971; Pace and Gibb, 2011, 2014; Kawano and Blob, 2013; Standen et al, 2016; Bressman et al, 2019) and either breathe air or withstand hypoxia for extended periods of time (Sayer, 2005)
While the kinematics of aquatic prey capture in the snowflake moray, Echidna nebulosa, has been quantified (Mehta and Wainwright, 2007a), the goal of this study is to extend the analysis of feeding kinematics to the terrestrial environment
We analyzed a minimum of 3 feeding trials for each individual in the terrestrial treatment and a minimum of two feeding trials for aquatic treatments
Summary
Many extant fish taxa are able to make terrestrial excursions (Johnels, 1957; Randall, 1971; Pace and Gibb, 2011, 2014; Kawano and Blob, 2013; Standen et al, 2016; Bressman et al, 2019) and either breathe air or withstand hypoxia for extended periods of time (Sayer, 2005). Studies focused on amphibious species have mainly examined the kinematics of fishes moving on land (Hsieh, 2010; Pace and Gibb, 2011; Kawano and Blob, 2013; Ward et al, 2015, Mehta et al, 2020), physiological adaptations to the terrestrial environment (LeBlanc et al, 2010; Turko et al, 2019) and the genetics therein (You et al, 2018). Examples of extant fishes that have been documented moving onto land to take advantage of novel food resources, tend to rely on the aquatic environment to manipulate and swallow prey (Cusherousset et al, 2012) or are able to hold water in their buccal cavity while on land to use it for feeding (Michel et al, 2015b). The need for water is not surprising as the vast majority of fishes rely on hydraulic transport to move prey from the buccal cavity into the oesophagus (Lauder, 1983)
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