The study of motor control is one of the most active areas of research in feeding functional morphology. As many of the muscles responsible for controlling feeding behavior are large and superficial, it has proved relatively easy to record muscle activity during feeding using electromyographic techniques. As a result, feeding muscle activity patterns have been quantified for representatives of all the major vertebrate groups, although sampling intensity varies from relatively good in groups like fishes and amphibians to poor in sharks, turtles and snakes (see Schwenk, 2000; this volume for an overview). Conservation as a theme has shaped inquiry into feeding motor control. Ideas of motor pattern conservation in fish and other aquatic vertebrates grew out of early experiments on rapidly feeding fishes which were found to have stereotypical kinematic and muscle activity patterns ( e.g., Osse, 1969; Liem, 1970; Nyberg, 1971; Lauder, 1980). Central pattern generators (CPGs) were hypothesized to control rapid suction feeding, a behavior thought to occur so rapidly that it precluded sensory modulation (Osse, 1969; Liem, 1978; Groebecker and Pietsch, 1979; Groebecker, 1983; Liem, 1984). Although subsequent studies demonstrated that muscle activity patterns could vary in response to prey differences ( e.g., Wainwright and Lauder, 1986; Friel and Wainwright, 1998), the general hypothesis of motor pattern conservation was strengthened by a number of quantitative studies of muscle activity which showed that, at low phylogenetic levels, species motor patterns were statistically indistinguishable ( e.g., Sanderson, 1988; Wainwright et al. , 1989). The central pattern generator hypothesis provided a mechanism to explain both patterns of stereotypy ( e.g., Liem, 1978; Lauder, 1980) and conservation (see Smith, 1994) Observations of motor pattern conservation were congruent with the identification of many conserved features of biomechanical design in suction feeding fishes ( e.g., Lauder, 1985 …