Food transport in Reptilia: a comparative viewpoint

Abstract

Reptilia exploit a large diversity of food resources from plant materials to living mobile prey. They are among the first tetrapods that needed to drink to maintain their water homeostasis. Here were compare the feeding and drinking mechanisms in Reptilia through an empirical approach based on the available data to open perspectives in our understanding of the evolution of the various mechanisms determined in these Tetrapoda for exploiting solid and liquid food resources. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Food processing and nutritional assimilation in animals’.

Repertoire of food acquisition behaviors in Western Palearctic shorebirds (Aves, Charadriiformes)

“…The prey is generally brought to the tongue, and as soon as contacts with the tongue occurs it is moved toward the pharynx by lingual cycles. Despite a large diversity of shapes (Burton, 1974), the tongue plays a key role in food transport either being the only one involved during lingual transport, or at the final phase of ballistic transport and also surface tension (Bels et al, 2023). Surface tension and capillarity have been determined a one specialized mechanism relatively widespread in a lot of shorebirds exploiting small prey at the surface of the water and captured in water and humid sediments (Rubega and Obst, 1993;Rubega, 1997;Estrella et al, 2007;Prakash et al, 2008).…”

“…Blue and red bars correspond to species belonging to Charadri and Scolopaci, respectively. Bels et al, 2023). For those species that use ballistics or surface tension, it should be noted that the length of their tongue is less or even much less than the size of the beak (Burton, 1974).…”

Using salamanders as model taxa to understand vertebrate feeding constraints during the late Devonian water-to-land transition

“…Our observations during own studies as well as from online videos suggest that inertial feeding may be restricted to slippery or very large prey that cannot be transported using hyolingual movements alone (see electronic supplementary material, table S1). It appears that salamanders use a mix of inertial feeding and tongue-based transport, similar to many lizards [ 140 ]. During gulping, the marginal teeth of some salamanders appear to cyclically contact large partially ingested prey in a biting manner on their way into the oral cavity.…”

Introduction: food processing and nutritional assimilation in animals

“…Püffel et al [40] define mandibular performance in feeding ants using bite force production, and Richter & Economo [38] discuss performance though food uptake rates and feeding duration. Similarly, Bels et al [55] [21] all assess feeding performance through jaw and tongue kinematics, as well as muscle performance (length-change), whereas Panagiotopoulou et al [56] use bone strain. Strain patterns and changes in muscle architecture are proxies for force production, energetic costs and feeding duration; although we note that many of the relationships between measures of performance remain tenuous (with noted exceptions, e.g.…”

“…Similarly, Bels et al . [ 55 ] highlight measures of performance for food transport in lizards involving measures of prey size per cycle, gape, speed of transport and number of cycles. Laird et al .…”