Abstract
Tooth microwear feature densities were significantly increased in a population of laboratory-reared three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus in four days, after they were transferred from a limnetic feeding regime to a benthic feeding regime. These results show that even in aquatic vertebrates with non-occluding teeth, changes in feeding can cause changes in tooth microwear in just a few days, as in mammals.
Highlights
In vivo damage to teeth is apparent when a tooth has been chipped or broken, but there can be more subtle evidence of tooth use
Previous work demonstrated that tooth microwear data can be recovered from three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus L. 1758 (Purnell et al, 2006, 2007) and has the potential to be a useful tool for understanding trophic niche in fish populations
Populations of G. aculeatus are recognized as occupying trophic niches that range along a spectrum from bottom-feeders to plankton-feeders, with most freshwater populations falling somewhere along this continuum (Lavin & McPhail, 1985, 1986; Schluter & McPhail, 1992; Caldecutt et al, 2001)
Summary
Tooth microwear feature densities were significantly increased in a population of laboratory-reared three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus in four days, after they were transferred from a limnetic feeding regime to a benthic feeding regime. Fish were fed in the water column and their teeth had little contact with the walls or floor of the tank This feeding regime was designed to produce tooth microwear with a low density of microwear features (Purnell et al, 2006) most similar to wild limnetic feeding G. aculeatus. Food was introduced to the bottom of the tank by pipette, directly onto the sand to ensure that fish ate off the substrate This feeding regime was designed to produce tooth microwear patterns like those of benthic feeding G. aculeatus, i.e. with a high density of features (Purnell et al, 2006). Regression analysis revealed that, there was considerable scatter, the relationship between these variables and the day sampled was linear. r2 Values for regressions were low, but the slopes for dentary R, and for feature density on both dentary and premaxilla were significantly different (a)
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