Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA95064, USA.
J Exp Biol. 2021 Jun 1;224(11). doi: 10.1242/jeb.234047. Epub 2021 Jun 10.
Some species of durophagous moray eels (Muraenidae) have been documented emerging from the marine environment to capture intertidal crabs but how they consume prey out of water is unknown. Here, we trained snowflake morays, Echidna nebulosa, to undulate out of the aquatic environment to feed on land. On land, snowflake morays remove prey from the substrate by biting and swallow prey using pharyngeal jaw enabled transport. Although snowflake morays exhibit smaller jaw rotation angles on land when apprehending their prey, transport kinematics involving dorsoventral flexion of the head to protract the pharyngeal jaws and overall feeding times did not differ between terrestrial and aquatic treatments. We suggest that their elongate body plan, ability to rotate their heads in the dorsoventral and lateral directions, and extreme pharyngeal movements all contribute to the ability of durophagous morays to feed in the terrestrial environment.
一些食硬骨鱼的海鳝（海鳝科）已被记录从海洋环境中出现，以捕捉潮间带螃蟹，但它们如何在离水的情况下捕食猎物尚不清楚。在这里，我们训练雪花海鳝（Echidna nebulosa）从水生环境中蜿蜒而出，在陆地上进食。在陆地上，雪花海鳝通过咬噬将猎物从基质中取出，并通过使咽颚得以活动的方式吞咽猎物。尽管雪花海鳝在陆地上捕捉猎物时的下颚旋转角度较小，但涉及头部背腹侧弯曲以伸展咽颚的运输运动学以及陆地和水生处理之间的整体进食时间没有差异。我们认为，它们细长的身体结构、能够在背腹侧和侧向旋转头部以及极度的咽颚运动，都有助于食硬骨鱼的海鳝在陆地环境中进食。
