Morphology of the jaw, suspensorial, and opercle musculature of Beloniformes and related species (Teleostei: Acanthopterygii), with a special reference to the m. adductor mandibulae complex

1 Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
2 Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- & Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.691v2
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Taxonomy, Zoology
Keywords
Atherinomorpha, Oryzias, Perca, Belone, jaw elongation, feeding
Copyright
© 2015 Werneburg
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Werneburg I. 2015. Morphology of the jaw, suspensorial, and opercle musculature of Beloniformes and related species (Teleostei: Acanthopterygii), with a special reference to the m. adductor mandibulae complex. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e691v2

Abstract

The taxon Beloniformes represents a heterogeneous group of teleost fishes that show an extraordinary diversity of jaw morphology. I present new anatomical descriptions of the jaw musculature in six selected beloniforms and four closely related species. A reduction of the external jaw adductor (A1) and a changed morphology of the intramandibular musculature were found in many Beloniformes. This might be correlated with the progressively reduced mobility of the upper and lower jaw bones. The needlefishes and sauries, which are characterised by extremely elongated and stiffened jaws, show several derived characters, which in combination enable the capture of fish at high velocity. The ricefishes are characterised by several derived and many plesiomorphic characters that make broad scale comparisons difficult. Soft tissue characters are highly diverse among hemiramphids and flying fishes reflecting the uncertainty about their phylogenetic position and interrelationship. The morphological findings presented herein may help to interpret future phylogenetic analyses using cranial musculature in Beloniformes.

Author Comment

This version of the preprint is based on the revised version of the peer reviewed manuscript submitted to PeerJ.