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First published online October 31, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 3523-3528 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.007187
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Stereotypy, flexibility and coordination: key concepts in behavioral functional morphology

Peter C. Wainwright1,*, Rita S. Mehta1 and Timothy E. Higham2

1 Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, 132 Long Hall, Clemson, SC 29634, USA


Figure 1
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  		Fig. 1. Frequency histograms of time to peak gape distance, measured from videos of two species of centrarchid fishes, feeding on live shrimp, under the same set of laboratory conditions. From strike attempt to strike attempt Lepomis cyanellus shows a less variable kinematic pattern than Lepomis microlophus. This lower variability is reflected in a lower coefficient of variation (c.v.) in L. cyanellus. Under the terminology scheme suggested in this paper, L. cyanellus shows a more stereotyped kinematic pattern than L. microlophus.

 

Figure 2
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  		Fig. 2. Evidence of kinematic flexibility in a specimen of Micropterus salmoides. This fish modulates prey-capture kinematics in response to feeding on different prey.

 

Figure 3
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  		Fig. 3. Examples of tightly integrated kinematics (A) and a less integrated pattern (B). The data plotted represent five prey-capture sequences from a single individual Micropterus salmoides feeding on live shrimp prey. (A) The relationship between gape distance and hyoid depression was measured in 10 video frames over the course of the expansion phase of each prey-capture event. A quadratic relationship was fitted, with a relatively high coefficient of determination (r2=0.85), indicating that hyoid depression and mouth opening are tightly integrated during prey capture in this fish. (B) The relationship between gape distance and the angle of head rotation during mouth closing after prey capture in the same feeding sequences analyzed for A. The much weaker coefficient of determination (r2=0.31) indicates that after the time of peak mouth expansion, these kinematic variables are weakly integrated. In this paper we suggest that the repeatability of positional relationships between different structures during movements be assessed by correlation, or coefficient of determination, as a measure of how tightly integrated the movement is.

 

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  		Fig. 4. The four-bar linkage in the oral jaws of Xyrichtys martinicensis. In a four-bar linkage four skeletal elements are connected together in a loop that allows planar motion at each of the four joints connecting pairs of links. In spite of its complexity, this system has only one degree of freedom. When one skeletal element moves there is exact compensatory motion in each of the other three links illustrated. A four-bar linkage would produce perfectly integrated movements. Scale bar=1.0 cm.

 

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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2008