Ontogeny of functional design in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum): Are motor patterns conserved during major morphological transformations?

The process of metamorphosis in tiger salamanders, Ambystoma tigrinum, is used to investigate motor pattern conservatism in vertebrates. Specifically, we examined cranial muscle activity to determine if changes in the motor pattern are correlated with the morphological or environmental changes that occur at metamorphosis. Twenty-three variables were measured from electromyographic recordings from six cranial muscles in 13 tiger salamanders. These variables described the configuration of the motor pattern: the peak amplitude of activity, duration, relative onset, and time to peak amplitude were measured for each of the six muscles. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses showed that there was no change in the mean motor pattern associated with the morphological transformation at metamorphosis: larval and metamorphosed individuals feeding in the water have very similar motor patterns. This was true despite significant morphological changes in the design of the feeding mechanism at metamorphosis and despite a significant decrease in aquatic feeding performance following metamorphosis. There was a change in the mean motor pattern to jaw muscles when metamorphosed individuals fed in water and on land: metamorphosed terrestrial feedings tend to have longer bursts of muscle activity then do aquatic feedings. The environmental changes in the motor pattern cannot be attributed to effects of differing fluid density or viscosity between water and air and are instead related to the shift to feeding by tongue projection on land. The decrease in aquatic feeding performance that occurs after metamorphosis is not correlated with changes in the motor pattern. Instead, the results suggest that changes in behavioral performance during ontogeny are associated with the transformation of hydrodynamic design of the feeding mechanism from uni- to bidirectional, and that motor patterns driving complex rapid behaviors may be conserved when behavior is altered by changes in peripheral morphology.