Meeting Abstract
One of the unresolved aspects of the evolution of terrestrial vertebrates is how the aquatic ancestors of tetrapods were able to access ground-based prey. Through study of several extant lineages of amphibious bony fishes capable of capturing prey on land, the functional and morphological requirements of the capture and intra-oral transport of prey at the transition from the aquatic to the terrestrial environment can be elucidated. Here we analyzed the functional morphology and kinematics of three morphologically diverse, terrestrial feeding fishes from different families: the reedfish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus), the Atlantic mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus) and the largescale foureyes (Anableps anableps). These species of fish each use different strategies to position the head and oral jaws to capture terrestrial prey. The reedfish uses its eel-like body to inclines its head downward, placing the oral jaws above the prey. The Atlantic mudskipper pivots over its strong pectoral fins, and uses its complex oral jaw apparatus in combination with generating buccal water displacement to pick up and transport prey on land. The largescale foureyes positions its head above the prey and uses extreme upper jaw protrusion and rotation of the jaws to pick prey from land. These finding show that diverse solutions exist to overcome the physical challenges for feeding posed by the shift from the aquatic environment to a terrestrial environment.
