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Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes

Teeth are crucial in elucidating the life history of vertebrates. However, most studies of teeth have focused on mammals. In heterodont mammals, tooth function is based on tooth shape and position along the jaw. However, the vast majority of vertebrates are homodont, and tooth function might not be...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mihalitsis, Michalis, Bellwood, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6774978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31598277
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190040
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author Mihalitsis, Michalis
Bellwood, David
author_facet Mihalitsis, Michalis
Bellwood, David
author_sort Mihalitsis, Michalis
collection PubMed
description Teeth are crucial in elucidating the life history of vertebrates. However, most studies of teeth have focused on mammals. In heterodont mammals, tooth function is based on tooth shape and position along the jaw. However, the vast majority of vertebrates are homodont, and tooth function might not be based on the same principles (in homodonts, tooth shape is broadly similar along the jaw). We provide a quantitative framework and establish dentition-based morphotypes for piscivorous fishes. We then assess how these morphotypes relate to key functional feeding traits. We identified three broad morphotypes: edentulate, villiform and macrodont, with edentulate and villiform species displaying considerable functional overlap; macrodont species are more distinct. When analysing macrodonts exclusively, we found a major axis of variation between ‘front-fanged’ and ‘back-fanged’ species. The functional interpretations of this axis suggest that tooth-based functional decoupling could exist, even in homodont vertebrates, where teeth have similar shapes. This diversity is based not only on tooth shape but also solely on the position along the jaw.
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spelling pubmed-67749782019-10-09 Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes Mihalitsis, Michalis Bellwood, David R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Teeth are crucial in elucidating the life history of vertebrates. However, most studies of teeth have focused on mammals. In heterodont mammals, tooth function is based on tooth shape and position along the jaw. However, the vast majority of vertebrates are homodont, and tooth function might not be based on the same principles (in homodonts, tooth shape is broadly similar along the jaw). We provide a quantitative framework and establish dentition-based morphotypes for piscivorous fishes. We then assess how these morphotypes relate to key functional feeding traits. We identified three broad morphotypes: edentulate, villiform and macrodont, with edentulate and villiform species displaying considerable functional overlap; macrodont species are more distinct. When analysing macrodonts exclusively, we found a major axis of variation between ‘front-fanged’ and ‘back-fanged’ species. The functional interpretations of this axis suggest that tooth-based functional decoupling could exist, even in homodont vertebrates, where teeth have similar shapes. This diversity is based not only on tooth shape but also solely on the position along the jaw. The Royal Society 2019-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6774978/ /pubmed/31598277 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190040 Text en © 2019 The Authors. 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.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Mihalitsis, Michalis
Bellwood, David
Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title_full Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title_fullStr Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title_full_unstemmed Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title_short Functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
title_sort functional implications of dentition-based morphotypes in piscivorous fishes
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6774978/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31598277
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190040
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