Affiliation:
1. University of Ottawa 1 , Department of Biology, 30 Marie-Curie Private, Ottawa, ON , Canada , K1N 9A7
2. Ball State University 2 , Department of Biology, 1600 Ashland Avenue, Muncie, IN 47306 , USA
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Amphibious fishes moving from water to land experience continuous changes in environmental forces. How these subtle changes impact behavioural transitions cannot be resolved by comparisons of aquatic and terrestrial locomotion. For example, aquatic and terrestrial locomotion appear distinct in the actinopterygian fish Polypterus senegalus; however, it is unclear how gradual water level changes influence the transition between these locomotor behaviours. We tested the hypothesis in P. senegalus that swimming and walking are part of an incremental continuum of behaviour and muscle activity across the environmental transition from water to land rather than two discrete behaviours, as proposed by previous literature. We exposed P. senegalus to discrete environments from fully aquatic to fully terrestrial while recording body and pectoral fin kinematics and muscle activity. Anterior axial red muscle effort increases as water depth decreases; however, a typical swimming-like anterior-to-posterior wave of axial red muscle activity is always present, even during terrestrial locomotion, indicating gradual motor control changes. Thus, walking appears to be based on swimming-like axial muscle activity whereas kinematic differences between swimming and walking appear to be due to mechanical constraints. A discrete change in left–right pectoral fin coordination from in-phase to out-of-phase at 0.7 body depths relies on adductor muscle activity with a similar duty factor and adductor muscle effort that increases gradually as water depth decreases. Thus, despite distinct changes in kinematic timing, neuromuscular patterning is similar across the water depth continuum. As the observed, gradual increases in axial muscle effort reflect muscle activity changes between aquatic and terrestrial environments observed in other elongate fishes, a modified, swimming-like axial muscle activity pattern for terrestrial locomotion may be common among elongate amphibious fishes.
Funder
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Human Frontiers Science Program
Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
4 articles.
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