Abstract
Some species of Clariidae (air breathing catfishes) have extremely well developed (hypertrophied) jaw closing muscles that increase the maximal biting force of these species. As these enlarged jaw muscles tightly cover the suspensoria, which are firmly connected to the neurocranium, we expect diminished lateral expansions during suction for species with hypertrophied jaw muscles. In turn, this could imply a reduced suction performance for these species. Compared to Clarias gariepinus, which has relatively small jaw closers, Clariallabes longicauda shows a clear hypertrophy of the jaw adductors. A kinematic analysis of prey capture in these two species is presented here. As predicted, Clariallabes longicauda shows less lateral expansion (average abduction of the hyoids of 19.0°) than Clarias gariepinus (abduction of 31.1°). However, our data indicate that the decrease in lateral expansion capacity in the species with excessive adductor development is compensated for by a larger and faster ventral expansion of the buccal cavity by depression of the hyoid.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Jeannine De Vree for assistance during the experiments. Special thanks to L. Van Meir (Vertebrate Morphology, Ghent University) for adopting parts of the morphological analysis of Clariallabes longicauda and F. Huysentruyt (Vertebrate Morphology, Ghent University) for comments on feeding ecology of clariids. This study was supported by the FWO grant 6.0388.00. The authors gratefully acknowledge support of the Special Research Fund of the University of Antwerp. Thanks to F. Ollevier and F. Volckaert for providing us with Clarias gariepinus larvae. Special thanks to M. Stiassny and C. Hopkins for making available the equipment for the sampling in Gabon. A.H. is a postdoctoral fellow of the fund for scientific research—Flanders (FWO-Vl).
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Van Wassenbergh, S., Herrel, A., Adriaens, D. et al. Effects of jaw adductor hypertrophy on buccal expansions during feeding of air breathing catfishes (Teleostei, Clariidae). Zoomorphology 123, 81–93 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-003-0090-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-003-0090-3