Digging with ‘hands’: observations of food capture in the flying gurnard Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

ABSTRACT

Videofilms of a foraging flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans) were collected at Itaipu, Niterói, RJ, Brazil. Analysis revealed details of the use of anterior parts of the pectoral fins which act as digging ‘hands’ to access infaunal prey items that are subsequently captured by oral suction feeding. Each pectoral fin has two distinct sections articulated separately on the pectoral girdle. The digging ‘anterior pectoral fin’ mainly consists of segmented and flexible fin rays but has an anterior robust unsegmented ray that provides an edge to the ‘hand’, allowing penetration of the substratum. The huge ‘posterior pectoral fins’ are supported by unsegmented rays. Most digging episodes involved one ‘hand’ and consisted of 1–7 cycles of movement with frequencies 1.15–3.74 cycles s^?1. During a cycle, the ‘hand’ is moved forwards and medially above the substratum, then is twisted medially and simultaneously depressed so that the anterior unsegmented ray impacts and enters the substratum. The hand is then drawn backwards and laterally to disturb the substratum. To prevent upward pitching of the head during digging, the ‘posterior pectoral fins’ are both moved anteriorly and laterally to shift the centre of gravity forwards while the caudal and ?second dorsal fins continue to provide propulsive force.     

Variations in Variation and Selection: The Ubiquity of the Variation-and-Selective-Retention Ratchet in Emergent Organizational Complexity, Part II: Quantum Field Theory

If the general arguments concerning theinvolvement of variation and selection inexplanations of ``fit'' are valid, then variationand selection explanations should beappropriate, or at least potentiallyappropriate, outside the paradigm historisticdomains of biology and knowledge. In thisdiscussion, I wish to indicate some potentialroles for variation and selection infoundational physics – specifically inquantum field theory. I will not be attemptingany full coherent ontology for quantum fieldtheory – none currently exists, and none islikely for at least the short term future. Instead, I wish to engage in some partiallyspeculative interpretations of some interestingresults in this area with the aim ofdemonstrating that variation and selectionnotions might play a role even here. Ifvariation and selection can survive in even asinhospitable and non-paradigmatic a terrain asfoundational physics, then it can surviveanywhere.     

Overcompensation and population cycles in an ungulate.

Although theoretical studies show that overcompensatory density-dependent mechanisms can potentially generate regular or chaotic fluctuations in animal numbers, the majority of realistic single-species models of invertebrate populations are not overcompensatory enough to cause sustained population cycles. The possibility that overcompensation may generate cycles or chaos in vertebrate populations has seldom been considered. Here we show that highly overcompensatng density-dependent mortality can generate recurrent population crashes consistent with those observed in a naturally limited population of Soay sheep. The observed interval of three or more years between crashes points to sharp 'focusing' of mortality over a narrow range of population density.