The kinematics and muscle activity pattern of the head and jaws during feeding in the Atlantic guitarfish Rhinobatos lentiginosus are described and quantified using high-speed video and electromyography to test hypotheses regarding the conservation and modulation of the feeding mechanism. Prey is captured by the guitarfish using suction. Suction capture, bite manipulation and suction transport behaviors in the guitarfish are similar to one another in the relative sequence of kinematic and motor activity, but can be distinguished from one another by variation in absolute muscle activation time, in the presence or absence of muscle activity and in the duration of muscle activity. A novel compression transport behavior was observed that is strikingly different from the other feeding behaviors and has not been described previously in elasmobranchs. The mechanism of upper jaw protrusion in the guitarfish differs from that described in other elasmobranchs. Muscle function and motor pattern during feeding are similar in the plesiomorphic cranial muscles in the guitarfish and the spiny dogfish probably because of their shared ancestral morphology. Modulation in recruitment of jaw and hyoid depressor muscles among feeding behaviors in the guitarfish may be a consequence of duplication of muscles and decoupling of the jaws and hyoid apparatus in batoids.
In the field: an interview with Harald Wolf
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In our new Conversation, Harald Wolf talks about his fieldwork experiences working with desert ants in Tunisia to understand their navigation.
Propose a new Workshop
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Our Workshops bring together leading experts and early-career researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Applications are now open to propose Workshops for 2024, one of which will be held in a Global South country.
Julian Dow steps down and John Terblanche joins the JEB team
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After 15 years with the journal, Julian Dow from University of Glasgow, UK, is stepping down as a Monitoring Editor. We wish Julian all the best for the future and welcome John Terblanche, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, who is joining the team. Julian talks about his long association with The Company of Biologists and the journal and John tells us about his life and career in this News article.
The capture of crude oil droplets by filter feeders at high and low Reynolds numbers
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Researchers from the University of Montreal, Canada, reveal how tiny filter feeding barnacles and Daphnia entrap and consume minute droplets of crude oil, introducing the pollutant at the bottom of the food chain.
Patterns and processes in amphibious fish
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In their Review, Keegan Lutek, Cassandra Donatelli and Emily Standen discuss the biomechanics and neural control of terrestrial locomotion in amphibious fish. They explore how locomotor mode depends on body shape, physical constraints and phylogeny.
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