Comparative anatomy and evolutionary history of suction feeding in cetaceans

Some odontocetes possess unique features of the hyolingual apparatus that are involved in suction feeding. The hyoid bone and associated musculature generates rapid, piston‐like retraction, and depression of the hyoid and tongue. “Capture” suction feeders (e.g., Globicephala) use suction for capturi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine mammal science 2011-07, Vol.27 (3), p.493-513
Main Authors: Johnston, Cassie, Berta, Annalisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anatomy
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Cetacea
cetaceans
comparative phylogenetic analyses
Eschrichtius robustus
evolution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Globicephala
gray whale
Lagenorhynchus
Mammalia
Marine
Mysticetes
Odontoceti
suction feeding
Vertebrata
Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
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Summary:Some odontocetes possess unique features of the hyolingual apparatus that are involved in suction feeding. The hyoid bone and associated musculature generates rapid, piston‐like retraction, and depression of the hyoid and tongue. “Capture” suction feeders (e.g., Globicephala) use suction for capturing and swallowing prey. “Combination” feeders (i.e., Lagenorhynchus) use both raptorial feeding (to capture prey) and suction (to ingest prey). In “capture” suction feeders, features of the hyoid and skull have been attributed to creating suction (i.e., large surface area and mandibular bluntness). In addition to odontocetes, a mysticete, the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), is considered a benthic suction feeder. However, anatomical studies of purported suction‐feeding structures of the gray whale are lacking. In addition, few studies have utilized evolutionary approaches to understand the history of suction feeding in cetaceans. This study incorporates quantitative and qualitative hyoid and cranial data from 35 extant and 14 extinct cetacean species into a multivariate principal component analysis and comparative phylogenetic analyses. Conclusions from these analyses are that some commonly attributed features (i.e., ventral throat grooves and mandibular bluntness) and one principal component are significantly correlated with suction feeding. Finally, ancestral state reconstructions indicate that suction feeding likely evolved once, early in cetacean evolutionary history.
ISSN:0824-0469
1748-7692
DOI:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2010.00420.x