Fig. 1.

Skull morphology and strike mechanics of the large-mouth bass, Micropterus salmoides. (A) Skeletal morphology of the largemouth bass, with red arrows indicating primary muscle force vectors, and blue arrows showing movements of bones during the opening phase of suction feeding. (B and C) Rendered frames from an XROMM animation of a sample strike before the onset of expansion of the mouth (B) and just before peak gape (C). (D–G) Suction feeding in the largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. Simultaneous lateral (Left) and ventral (Right) views show the role of lateral expansion in prey capture by suction. From time 0–8 ms cranial elevation and mouth opening occur before contact with the prey item. At 16 ms the maxilla is observed in anteriorly rotated position and expansion of the head and suction forces are near peak. At time 24 ms the prey is being sucked into the mouth, after which the jaws close on the food item within about 50 ms (or 1/20 of a second). Images B and C courtesy of Ariel Camp (Brown University, Providence, RI) and ref. 20.