A new theoretical performance landscape for suction feeding reveals adaptive kinematics in a natural population of reef damselfish

Data is feeding kinematics for 110 Chromis viridis individuals filmed underwater while feeding undisturbed on natural prey. data was obtained using a pair of high-speed underwater cameras that were calibrated to generate 3D coordinates. from digitized landmarks we determined: (1) maximum gape, defined as the maximum diameter of the fish’s mouth; (2) time to peak gape (TTPG), defined as the time to open its mouth from 20% to 95% of peak gape; (3) maximum jaw protrusion measured during the strike from the fish’s frame of reference; (4) time to peak jaw protrusion (TTPJP), defined as the time it took the fish to protrude its jaws from 20% to 95% of maximum jaw protrusion; (5) ram speed, defined as the fish’s swimming speed during the strike (i.e. from mouth opening to closing); and (6) timing of peak protrusion, defined as the difference between the time of maximum gape and time of maximal jaw protrusion . Calculations were made as described in Holzman et al. (2008)