Scale-eating Research Articles

Preying on cyprinid snout warts (pearl organs) as a novel and peculiar habit in the Lake Malawi cichlid Docimodus evelynae

Cichlid fishes in the African Great Lakes have undergone explosive speciation, acquiring markedly varying ecologies and diets. There are multiple lineages of scale-eating cichlids, and their natural history and evolutionary ecology is only partially understood. We examined the feeding habit of Docimodus evelynae, a known scale eater, in Lake Malawi. The stomach contents of young individuals mainly consisted of unknown 1 mm hard, white warts (> 30%). To clarify the origin of these warts, we conducted an X-ray fluorometer analysis, and found they were rich in sulphur but low in silicon and calcium, suggesting they were epidermal tissues. Histological and morphological analyses revealed they were multicellular and cup-shaped. These characteristics matched only those of the pearl organs of the coexisting cyprinid Labeo cylindricus. DNA was extracted from the warts found in the stomach of five D. evelynae individuals, followed by PCR using primers targeting the partial COI gene of L. cylindricus. The resulting sequences exhibited 98% similarity to those of L. cylindricus. Pearl organs, never reported as a primary food for fish, could offer a substantial nutritional source based on calorific calculations. Understanding how this peculiar diet is foraged is essential for full comprehension of the food-web structure in this lake.

A multi-peak performance landscape for scale biting in an adaptive radiation of pupfishes.

The physical interactions between organisms and their environment ultimately shape diversification rates, but the contributions of biomechanics to evolutionary divergence are frequently overlooked. Here, we estimated a performance landscape for biting in an adaptive radiation of Cyprinodon pupfishes, including scale-biting and molluscivore specialists, and compared performance peaks with previous estimates of the fitness landscape in this system. We used high-speed video to film feeding strikes on gelatin cubes by scale eater, molluscivore, generalist and hybrid pupfishes and measured bite dimensions. We then measured five kinematic variables from 227 strikes using the SLEAP machine-learning model. We found a complex performance landscape with two distinct peaks best predicted gel-biting performance, corresponding to a significant non-linear interaction between peak gape and peak jaw protrusion. Only scale eaters and their hybrids were able to perform strikes within the highest performance peak, characterized by larger peak gapes and greater jaw protrusion. A performance valley separated this peak from a lower performance peak accessible to all species, characterized by smaller peak gapes and less jaw protrusion. However, most individuals exhibited substantial variation in strike kinematics and species could not be reliably distinguished by their strikes, indicating many-to-many mapping of morphology to performance. The two performance peaks observed in the lab were partially consistent with estimates of a two-peak fitness landscape measured in the wild, with the exception of the new performance peak for scale eaters. We thus reveal a new bimodal non-linear biomechanical model that connects morphology to performance to fitness in a sympatric radiation of trophic niche specialists.

Rapid adaptive evolution of scale-eating kinematics to a novel ecological niche.

The origins of novel trophic specialization, in which organisms begin to exploit resources for the first time, may be explained by shifts in behavior such as foraging preferences or feeding kinematics. One way to investigate behavioral mechanisms underlying ecological novelty is by comparing prey capture kinematics among species. We investigated the contribution of kinematics to the origins of a novel ecological niche for scale-eating within a microendemic adaptive radiation of pupfishes on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. We compared prey capture kinematics across three species of pupfish while they consumed shrimp and scales in the lab, and found that scale-eating pupfish exhibited peak gape sizes twice as large as in other species, but also attacked prey with a more obtuse angle between their lower jaw and suspensorium. We then investigated how this variation in feeding kinematics could explain scale-biting performance by measuring bite size (surface area removed) from standardized gelatin cubes. We found that a combination of larger peak gape and more obtuse lower jaw and suspensorium angles resulted in approximately 40% more surface area removed per strike, indicating that scale-eaters may reside on a performance optimum for scale biting. To test whether feeding performance could contribute to reproductive isolation between species, we also measured F1 hybrids and found that their kinematics and performance more closely resembled generalists, suggesting that F1 hybrids may have low fitness in the scale-eating niche. Ultimately, our results suggest that the evolution of strike kinematics in this radiation is an adaptation to the novel niche of scale eating.

An Investigation of Lepidophagy (Scale Eating) in Cyprinodon Pupfishes on San Salvador Island, Bahamas

A recently described species of pupfish, Cyprinodon desquamator, was previously reported to have rapidly and sympatrically evolved lepidophagy (scale eating) on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. Although lepidophagy is known from a variety of marine and freshwater fish species, the effects of this mode of predation on prey species have not previously been characterized. By examining scale regeneration rates in lakes with and without the scale-eating predator, we provide evidence suggesting that C. desquamator imposes high predation pressures on sympatric fishes, which supports the hypothesis that the feeding behavior of C. desquamator may have acted as an important driver of pupfish species divergence on San Salvador Island.

"Latitudinal Gradients in Species Diversity": Reflections on Pianka's 1966 Article and a Look Forward.

"Latitudinal Gradients in Species Diversity": Reflections on Pianka's 1966 Article and a Look Forward.

RELACIONES TRÓFICAS DE CINCO ESPECIES DE PECES DE INTERÉS COMERCIAL EN LA BAHÍA DE CARTAGENA, CARIBE COLOMBIANO

Cartagena Bay is a highly productive habitat which supports important aquatic communities and is considered an estuarine environment. During the sampling season, fie commercial fih were captured: ladyfih (Elops smithi), machuelo (Opisthonema oglinum), mullet (Mugil incilis), sea bass (Centropomus ensiferus), and corvina (Cynoscion jamaicensis), all which stomach contents were analyzed. From all the fih captured, 82.6% presented contents in their stomachs, which were separated into 57 items, such as benthic microalgae, dinoflgellates, cyanophytes, sponges, mollusks, annelids, crustaceans, and fih. According to the Importance Relative Index (IRI), E. smithi, C. ensiferus, and C. jamaicensis were classifid as third order consumers, O. oglinum as a second-order consumer, and M. incilis as fist order consumer. The most contrasting result compared to other studies, is the found for O. oglinum, suggesting that this species is not only a fiter feeding, but also a scale eater (lepidophagy).

Mate Choice by Both Sexes Maintains Reproductive Isolation in a Species Flock of Pupfish (Cyprinodon spp) in the Bahamas

AbstractFemale and male mate choices can reinforce reproductive isolation after sympatric speciation. Using a binary choice design, we examine the importance of visual cues in female mate choice in all three sympatric species of pupfish on San Salvador Island. We also examine the importance of olfactory cues in female choice of the hard‐shelled invertebrate specialist (Cyprinodon brontotheroides). We examine male mate choice in two of the three species, the scale eater (C. desquamator) and the detritivore (C. variegatus). Females of all three species use visual cues and prefer conspecific males. C. brontotheroides females do not use olfactory cues to discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific males. Males of C. desquamator and C. variegatus also preferentially court conspecific females. Thus, mutual mate choice, where both females and males exhibit mate choice, acts as a strong behavioral pre‐mating isolation mechanism in these sympatrically speciated pupfish.

Perspectives on asymmetry: The erickson lecture

Topics discussed include asymmetry of the brain; prosopagnosia with asymmetric involvement; the blaspheming brain; effects of the numbers of X chromosomes on brain asymmetry; normal facial asymmetry; kissing asymmetry; left- and right-handedness; left-sided baby cradling; Nodal signaling and left/right asymmetry; primary cilium and left/right asymmetry in zebrafish; right/left asymmetry in snails; species differences in Shh and Fgf8; primary cilium in vertebrate asymmetry; Hedgehog signaling on the cilium; Wnt signaling on the cilium; situs solitus, situs inversus, and situs ambiguus (heterotaxy); ciliopathies; right-sided injuries in trilobites; unilateral ocular use in the octopus; fiddler crabs; scale-eating cichlids; narwhals; left-footed parrots; asymmetric whisker use in rats; and right-sided fatigue fractures in greyhounds.

Lateralized Kinematics of Predation Behavior in a Lake Tanganyika Scale-Eating Cichlid Fish

Behavioral lateralization has been documented in many vertebrates. The scale-eating cichlid fish Perissodus microlepis is well known for exhibiting lateral dimorphism in its mouth morphology and lateralized behavior in robbing scales from prey fish. A previous field study indicated that this mouth asymmetry closely correlates with the side on which prey is attacked, but details of this species' predation behavior have not been previously analyzed because of the rapidity of the movements. Here, we studied scale-eating behavior in cichlids in a tank through high-speed video monitoring and quantitative assessment of behavioral laterality and kinematics. The fish observed showed a clear bias toward striking on one side, which closely correlated with their asymmetric mouth morphologies. Furthermore, the maximum angular velocity and amplitude of body flexion were significantly larger during attacks on the preferred side compared to those on the nonpreferred side, permitting increased predation success. In contrast, no such lateral difference in movement elements was observed in acoustically evoked flexion during the escape response, which is similar to flexion during scale eating and suggests that they share a common motor control pathway. Thus the neuronal circuits controlling body flexion during scale eating may be functionally lateralized upstream of this common motor pathway.

Evolution of feeding specialization in Tanganyikan scale-eating cichlids: a molecular phylogenetic approach

BackgroundCichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika exhibit remarkable diversity in their feeding habits. Among them, seven species in the genus Perissodus are known for their unique feeding habit of scale eating with specialized feeding morphology and behaviour. Although the origin of the scale-eating habit has long been questioned, its evolutionary process is still unknown. In the present study, we conducted interspecific phylogenetic analyses for all nine known species in the tribe Perissodini (seven Perissodus and two Haplotaxodon species) using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses of the nuclear DNA. On the basis of the resultant phylogenetic frameworks, the evolution of their feeding habits was traced using data from analyses of stomach contents, habitat depths, and observations of oral jaw tooth morphology.ResultsAFLP analyses resolved the phylogenetic relationships of the Perissodini, strongly supporting monophyly for each species. The character reconstruction of feeding ecology based on the AFLP tree suggested that scale eating evolved from general carnivorous feeding to highly specialized scale eating. Furthermore, scale eating is suggested to have evolved in deepwater habitats in the lake. Oral jaw tooth shape was also estimated to have diverged in step with specialization for scale eating.ConclusionThe present evolutionary analyses of feeding ecology and morphology based on the obtained phylogenetic tree demonstrate for the first time the evolutionary process leading from generalised to highly specialized scale eating, with diversification in feeding morphology and behaviour among species.

Scale-eating in characoids and other fishes

Scale-eating in characoids and other fishes