Meeting Abstract
Agonidae body armor: performance and prize Kayla A. Rosado1, Sebastian Kruppert2, Adam P. Summers2 1 Monmouth University 2 Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington Fishes of the family of Agonidae show an intriguing amount of body armor. The majority of the 47 described poacher (Agonidae) species is found in the Pacific. All poachers lack a swim bladder and are found in benthic habitats of different depth. Their armor is made out of bony plates covering the whole body. The plates converge in a spine in most species and in one species these plates are even found on the eyeballs. The amount of armor as well as the question of the trade-off that has to come along with it render poachers an excellent group to study animal body armor and its costs. Based on the hypothesis that heavy body armor should come with a trade-off we performed this study in order to evaluate the performance of poacher body armor and analyze their maneuverability. A heavy body armor can reduce an animal’s movement capabilities. That can be considered direct or indirect costs of this defensive trait. We here present our findings on the poacher armor performance as well as on the fishes maneuverability. We tested four species from the Salish Sea using penetration tests, bending tests and high speed footage of c-starts. Our results revealed no significant difference of force needed to penetrate poacher armor on the plates versus in between the scales. Furthermore, the poacher armor was equally tough on the dorsal, lateral and ventral side. All analyzed species showed quite high forces in the penetration tests with Anoplagonus inermis having the toughest armor. The results of our bending tests and c-start footage proved the poachers surprisingly maneuverable.
