...Charlotte M. Stinson; Stephen M. Deban ABSTRACT Salamanders use the hyobranchial apparatus and its associated musculature for tongue projection on land and for suction feeding in water. Hyobranchial apparatus composition and morphology vary across species, and different morphologies are better...

... examined the whole-organism performance, motor control and muscle contractile physiology underlying feeding in the salamander Eurycea guttolineata. We compared elastically powered tongue projection with the associated muscle-powered retraction to determine the thermal robustness of each of these functional...

... at low temperature. We examined the motor control and muscle contractile physiology underlying an elastically powered movement – tongue projection in chameleons – and the associated muscle powered retraction to test the premise that the thermal dependence of muscle contractile dynamics is conserved. We...

... of movement: (1) ballistic mouth opening and tongue projection, which are powered by elastic recoil, and (2) non-ballistic prey transport, including tongue retraction and mouth closing, which are powered directly by muscle contraction. Over 11–25°C, temperature coefficients of ballistic mouth opening...

... distances and angles were measured from sequential frames beginning approximately 0.5 s prior to tongue projection and continuing for about 1.0 s. Sixteen additional variables, documenting maximum excursions and the timing of events, were calculated from the kinematic profiles. Quantified descriptions...