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Mechanics Of Suction Generation During Feeding In Little Skates, Danielle Duquette

Senior Honors Projects

Feeding mechanisms of aquatic vertebrates has been extensively studied in the past, while that of elasmobranchs remains limited. Skates and rays are believed to have evolved from a shark ancestor, thus they represent the most derived group. All skates are dorsoventrally compressed, have a unique jaw suspension type and head skeleton and live in benthic environments. It is unknown whether these derived features of skates have altered the ancestral shark feeding mechanism. Comparing feeding mechanisms in skates and sharks may shed light on morphological transformations that have arisen after the evolutionary split of these two groups. In this study prey …