Terrestrial-style feeding in a very early aquatic tetrapod is supported by evidence from experimental analysis of suture morphology.

ABSTRACT: There is no consensus on when in the fish-tetrapod transition suction feeding, the primary method of prey capture in the aquatic realm, evolved into the direct biting on prey typical of terrestrial animals. Here, we show that differences in the morphology of selected cranial sutures between species that span the fish-tetrapod transition (the Devonian osteolepiform fish Eusthenopteron, the aquatic Devonian tetrapod Acanthostega, and the Permian terrestrial tetrapod Phonerpeton) can be used to infer when terrestrial feeding first appeared. Our approach consists of defining a sutural morphospace, assigning functional fields to that morphospace based on our previous measurements of suture function made during feeding in the living fish Polypterus, inferring the functions of the fossil sutures

SUBMITTER: Markey MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1855429 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature