Musculoskeletal Biomechanics of the Dual-Function Axial Musculature of Fishes in Swimming and Suction Feeding

Jimenez, Yordano

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Year:: 2021
Contributor:: Jimenez, Yordano (creator); Roberts, Thomas (Reader); Marsh, Richard (Reader); Biewener, Andrew (Reader); Brainerd, Elizabeth (Advisor); Brown University. Biology and Medicine: Ecological and Evolutionary Biology (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: suction feeding; Biomechanics; Fishes; Muscles; Animal locomotion; Swimming
Extent:: xx, 143 p.

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Abstract:: Many fishes use their ‘swimming’ muscles to generate most of the power for suction feeding, an explosive behavior whereby fish ingest food by sucking water into the mouth. My dissertation work examined how the axial musculoskeletal system, traditionally studied in the context of swimming, has been co-opted for suction feeding. Using 3D motion capture and morphological analysis, Chapter 1 compared the morphology of the axial skeleton and neurocranial elevation, a critical component of suction feeding, in three different species. This three-species comparison revealed that axial morphology may limit neurocranial elevation, and therefore, aspects of cranial expansion. Chapter 2 examined which parts of the epaxial musculature in largemouth bass contribute to swimming and suction feeding using electromyography, intraoral pressure recordings, and swimming data. I found that bass modulated epaxial muscle activity for both swimming and suction feeding. Bass generally activated cranio-dorsal regions for low-pressure strikes but activated nearly all cranio-caudal and dorsoventral regions for high-pressure strikes. In swimming, bass always activated all ventral cranio-caudal regions, but then activated the dorsal cranio-caudal regions to increase performance. Bass also activated the epaxial muscle at substantially higher intensities for high-performance swimming than for high-performance suction feeding. Chapter 3 quantified muscle strain-activation of swimming and suction feeding in a ‘suction specialist’, bluegill sunfish, using electromyography and sonomicrometry. Sunfish modulated suction feeding performance using regionalized and graded muscle activity like bass. However, sunfish activated a substantially greater percentage of muscle for suction feeding as compared to bass. This is likely why sunfish have been shown to produce substantially higher mass-specific muscle power. Chapter 4 analyzed variation of longitudinal muscle strain in different regions of the epaxial musculature using the strain data collected in Chapter 3. I found that swimming and suction feeding produced different patterns of muscle shortening, which may limit the ability of the muscle to produce high power for both behaviors. Future work is needed to determine whether these different strain patterns affect the ability of suction-feeding fishes to generate high muscle power outputs for both functions.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2021

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Citation

Jimenez, Yordano, "Musculoskeletal Biomechanics of the Dual-Function Axial Musculature of Fishes in Swimming and Suction Feeding" (2021). Ecological and Evolutionary Biology Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:cjhuzpdu/

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Ecological and Evolutionary Biology Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Ecological and Evolutionary Biology department.
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