Data from: Extremely fast feeding strikes are powered by elastic recoil in a seahorse relative, the snipefish, Macroramphosus scolopax

Among over 30,000 species of ray-finned fishes, seahorses and pipefishes
have a unique feeding mechanism whereby the elastic recoil of tendons
allows them to rotate their long snouts extremely rapidly in order to
capture small elusive prey. To understand the evolutionary origins of this
feeding mechanism, its phylogenetic distribution among closely related
lineages must be assessed. We present evidence for elastic recoil powered
feeding in the snipefish (Macroramphosus scolopax) from kinematics,
dynamics, and morphology. High-speed videos of strikes show they achieve
extremely fast head and hyoid rotational velocities, resulting in rapid
prey capture in as short at 2 ms. The maximum instantaneous
muscle-mass-specific power requirement for head rotation in snipefish was
above the known vertebrate maximum, which is evidence that strikes are not
the result of direct muscle power. Finally, we show that the over-center
conformation of the four-bar linkage mechanism coupling head elevation to
hyoid rotation in snipefish can function as a torque reversal latch,
preventing the head from rotating and providing the opportunity for
elastic energy storage. The presence of elastic recoil feeding in
snipefish means that this high-performance mechanism is not restricted to
the Syngnathidae (seahorses and pipefish) and may have evolved in
parallel.