Ramírez-Díaz, C., R., Peña, R., Diogo & V.H., Cruz-Escalona (2023). Comparative cranio-mandibular myology of three species of Batoidea from the Southern Gulf of California, Mexico. Journal of Morphology. 284(1): e21547. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.21547.
Cristina Ramírez-Díaz 1, Renato Peña 2, Rui Diogo 3 y Víctor Hugo Cruz-Escalona 4
The mandibular apparatus of batoids (skates, electric rays, guitarfishes, stingrays, andsawfishes) is composed of a few skeletal elements to which the muscular bundles,responsible for all movements involved in the feeding mechanism, are inserted. Thedescription of the different mandibular morphologies can help to understand thedifferent feeding guilds in this group. In this study, we examined the cranio-mandibular myology of adult Rostroraja velezi, Narcine entemedor, and Zapteryxexasperata, three species of rays that coexist in the Southern Gulf of California,Mexico. This study described the muscles on the ventral and the dorsal surfaces foreach species, identified the origins and insertions of these muscles, as well as thegeneral characteristics of muscle morphology. There were 17 and 18 muscle bundlesattached to the feeding apparatus, including five on the dorsal surface. Only thelevator rostri, which elevates the rostrum during feeding, showed considerabledifferences in shape and size among species. The muscles of the adductor complexshowed the greatest differences in size among the three species. N. entemedorpresented the exclusive muscle X in the lower mandibular area and the extremereduction of the coracohyoideus in the pharyngeal area derived from the absence ofthe basihyal cartilage. The information generated in our study supports themorphological specialization of electric rays (N. entemedor) for an almost exclusivesuction feeding strategy.
Palabras clave: batoids; jaws; mandibular musculature; neurocranium
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