LANGENBACH, G.E.J.: Mammalian feeding In mammals, basic symmetrical food transport cycles have been described for lapping and soft food ingestion. To increase chewing efficiency a unilateral occlusal motion has been evolved replacing the slow closing phase in the basic cycle. This power stroke is preceded by fast opening and closing phases increasing the gape. Jaw […]

AERTS, P.*; VAN DAMME, J.; HERREL, A.: Intrinsic mechanics and control of fast cranio-cervical movements in aquatic feeding turtles Aquatic feeding strikes on agile prey in snake-necked turtles involves fast neck extension, bucco-pharyngo-oesophageal expansion and head retraction. The ultimate, rectilinear acceleration of the head towards the prey requires complex vertebral rotations, largely differing from strike […]

NISHIKAWA, K.C.: Feeding motor patterns: Insights from biomechanical modeling. Biomechanical modeling and empirical studies in my laboratory over the past ten years have produced a number of insights into activation patterns of tongue and jaw muscles during feeding in frogs. One insight from empirical work, confirmed by biomechanical modeling, is that activation patterns of antagonistic […]

WILGA, C.D.*; HUETER, R.E.; WAINWRIGHT, P.C.; MOTTA, P.J.: FUNCTION AND EVOLUTION OF UPPER JAW PROTRUSION MECHANISMS IN ELASMOBRANCHS Upper jaw protrusion is an important component of the feeding mechanism in most elasmobranchs. To quantify the mechanics of feeding, particularly those of upper jaw protrusion, in four diverse species of elasmobranchs we used anatomical dissection, electromyography […]

VANDERLEEUW, A.H.J.*; BOUT, R.G.; ZWEERS, G.A.: Control of the cranio-cervical system during feeding in birds. The avian neck is a complex, kinematically redundant system, that plays a role during i.a. food prehension and manipulation. The kinematic redundancy is resolved by movement principles, e.g., Fowl move their necks according to a geometric principle that maximizes rotation […]

Alfaro, M.E.*; Janovetz, J.; Blob, R.; Westneat, M.W.: Biting in Teleost Fishes Biting is a distinct means of feeding in fishes in which upper and lower jaws forcibly grasp, tear, or cut the prey. Biting is a common mode of feeding in many groups of fishes, including parrotfishes, wrasses, cichlids, triggerfishes, surgeonfishes, damselfishes, and characins, […]

RIEGER, RM; LADURNER, P: What do we know about the origin and evolution of mesoderm among the lower Metazoa? Ever since the classic studies of mesoderm by Oskar and Richard Hertwig (1882), the evolutionary origin of this germ layer has remained a central issue in animal phylogeny. Libbie Hyman (1951, 1959), Adolf Remane (1963), and […]

WAGNER, G P: What are morphological characters and how may they originate? From an organismal point of view the increase in apparent complexity of organisms is correlated or may even be defined as the increase in the number of individualized body parts. Hence, from this point of view, the increase in metazoan complexity is synonymous […]

RUNNEGAR, B.; GEHLING, J.G.: Understanding the Ediacarans in the context of early animal evolution In 1983, when Seilacher suggested that the well-known Ediacaran fossils may belong to an extinct monophyletic clade, the vendozoa (subsequently Vendobionta), the idea was roundly resisted by the paleontologists working with these organisms. Two decades later, following proposals that have placed […]

MCSHEA, D.W.: Three Provocative Patterns in Hierarchical Evolution The hierarchical structure of organisms increased a number of times in the history of life, notably in three episodes: the origin of the eukaryotic cell from symbiotic associations of prokaryotes; the emergence of the first multicellular individuals from clones of eukaryotic cells; and the origin of the […]