Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder?
Large nektonic suspension feeders have evolved multiple times. The apparent trend among apex predators for some evolving into feeding on small zooplankton is of interest for understanding the associated shifts in anatomy and behaviour, while the spatial and temporal distribution gives clues to an in...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7277245 2023-05-15T15:37:12+02:00 Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? Coatham, Samuel J. Vinther, Jakob Rayfield, Emily J. Klug, Christian 2020-05-20 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277245/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277245/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY R Soc Open Sci Earth and Environmental Science Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 2020-06-14T00:40:41Z Large nektonic suspension feeders have evolved multiple times. The apparent trend among apex predators for some evolving into feeding on small zooplankton is of interest for understanding the associated shifts in anatomy and behaviour, while the spatial and temporal distribution gives clues to an inherent relationship with ocean primary productivity and how past and future perturbations to these may impact on the different tiers of the food web. The evolution of large nektonic suspension feeders—‘gentle giants’—occurred four times among chondrichthyan fishes (e.g. whale sharks, basking sharks and manta rays), as well as in baleen whales (mysticetes), the Mesozoic pachycormid fishes and at least twice in radiodontan stem group arthropods (Anomalocaridids) during the Cambrian explosion. The Late Devonian placoderm Titanichthys has tentatively been considered to have been a megaplanktivore, primarily due to its gigantic size and narrow, edentulous jaws while no suspension-feeding apparatus have ever been reported. Here, the potential for microphagy and other feeding behaviours in Titanichthys is assessed via a comparative study of jaw mechanics in Titanichthys and other placoderms with presumably differing feeding habits (macrophagy and durophagy). Finite-element models of the lower jaws of Titanichthys termieri in comparison to Dunkleosteus terrelli and Tafilalichthys lavocati reveal considerably less resistance to von Mises stress in this taxon. Comparisons with a selection of large-bodied extant taxa of similar ecological diversity reveal similar disparities in jaw stress resistance. Our results, therefore, conform to the hypothesis that Titanichthys was a suspension feeder with jaws ill-suited for biting and crushing but well suited for gaping ram feeding. Text baleen whales PubMed Central (PMC) Royal Society Open Science 7 5 200272 |
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Earth and Environmental Science Coatham, Samuel J. Vinther, Jakob Rayfield, Emily J. Klug, Christian Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
topic_facet |
Earth and Environmental Science |
description |
Large nektonic suspension feeders have evolved multiple times. The apparent trend among apex predators for some evolving into feeding on small zooplankton is of interest for understanding the associated shifts in anatomy and behaviour, while the spatial and temporal distribution gives clues to an inherent relationship with ocean primary productivity and how past and future perturbations to these may impact on the different tiers of the food web. The evolution of large nektonic suspension feeders—‘gentle giants’—occurred four times among chondrichthyan fishes (e.g. whale sharks, basking sharks and manta rays), as well as in baleen whales (mysticetes), the Mesozoic pachycormid fishes and at least twice in radiodontan stem group arthropods (Anomalocaridids) during the Cambrian explosion. The Late Devonian placoderm Titanichthys has tentatively been considered to have been a megaplanktivore, primarily due to its gigantic size and narrow, edentulous jaws while no suspension-feeding apparatus have ever been reported. Here, the potential for microphagy and other feeding behaviours in Titanichthys is assessed via a comparative study of jaw mechanics in Titanichthys and other placoderms with presumably differing feeding habits (macrophagy and durophagy). Finite-element models of the lower jaws of Titanichthys termieri in comparison to Dunkleosteus terrelli and Tafilalichthys lavocati reveal considerably less resistance to von Mises stress in this taxon. Comparisons with a selection of large-bodied extant taxa of similar ecological diversity reveal similar disparities in jaw stress resistance. Our results, therefore, conform to the hypothesis that Titanichthys was a suspension feeder with jaws ill-suited for biting and crushing but well suited for gaping ram feeding. |
format |
Text |
author |
Coatham, Samuel J. Vinther, Jakob Rayfield, Emily J. Klug, Christian |
author_facet |
Coatham, Samuel J. Vinther, Jakob Rayfield, Emily J. Klug, Christian |
author_sort |
Coatham, Samuel J. |
title |
Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
title_short |
Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
title_full |
Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
title_fullStr |
Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Was the Devonian placoderm Titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
title_sort |
was the devonian placoderm titanichthys a suspension feeder? |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277245/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
R Soc Open Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277245/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200272 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
200272 |
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