Evolution of cannibalism in the larval stage of pelagic fish |
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Authors: | Kinya Nishimura Noboru Hoshino |
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Institution: | (1) Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan |
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Abstract: | Larvae of several ocean pelagic fish species, such as tunas and marlins, have been known to have large jaws, but the ecological
significance of this unique morphological character has been hardly analyzed in evolutionary ecology. Pelagic spawners produce
small and nutrition-poor ova, and spawning and nursery grounds of the open ocean migratory fishes are oligotrophic. We hypothesize
that cannibalism would be a possible life style in the larval period and the large mouth gape would be an adaptive morphological
characteristic for a cannibal in the oligotrophic pelagic environment. We showed that mouth gape size of the open ocean pelagic
fish is significantly larger than that of offshore/coastal pelagic fish in larval period. A mathematical model demonstrated
that cannibalism would tend to evolve in high sea environment. Our findings suggest an evolutionary pattern of cannibalism
trait in the larval stage of pelagic fishes.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | cannibalism high sea invasibility analyis larval period pelagic fish |
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