Fig. 2. (A) The change in observed force (filled circles), gape size (open diamonds) and distance to the prey (gray triangles) during a representative strike. The distance between the prey and the fish is closed by rapid forward movement of the jaws that occurs during mouth opening. Note that the initiation and peak of force lag the onset and peak of gape expansion, respectively. Grey area represents negative distances, i.e. where the prey is in the fish's mouth. (B) Temporal patterns for the force exerted on shrimp prey by bluegill sunfish. Time is given as a fraction of TTPG, defined as the duration from 20% to 95% of peak gape (0 to 1, respectively). The boxes have vertical lines at the lower quartile, median and upper quartile values. Whiskers represent the range for 95% of the observed values. N=48 strikes, 12 per fish.