Feeding behaviour in a 'basal' tortoise provides insights on the transitional feeding mode at the dawn of modern land turtle evolution.

ABSTRACT: Almost all extant testudinids are highly associated with terrestrial habitats and the few tortoises with high affinity to aquatic environments are found within the genus Manouria. Manouria belongs to a clade which forms a sister taxon to all remaining tortoises and is suitable as a model for studying evolutionary transitions within modern turtles. We analysed the feeding behaviour of Manouria emys and due to its phylogenetic position, we hypothesise that the species might have retained some ancestral features associated with an aquatic lifestyle. We tested whether M. emys is able to feed both in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In fact, M. emys repetitively tried to reach submerged food items in water, but always failed to grasp them-no suction feeding mechanism was applied. When feed

SUBMITTER: Natchev N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4558077 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature