Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology
Morphological traits have often been used to predict diet and trophic position of species across many animal groups. Variation in gut size of closely related animals is known to be a good predictor of dietary habits. Species that are more herbivorous or that persist on low-quality diets often have l...
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| Formaat: | Artikel |
| Taal: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2023-04-01
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| Reeks: | PeerJ |
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| Online toegang: | https://peerj.com/articles/15224.pdf |
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| author | Katia Quezada-Villa Zachary J. Cannizzo Jade Carver Robert P. Dunn Laura S. Fletcher Matthew E. Kimball Ainslee L. McMullin Brenden Orocu Bruce W. Pfirrmann Emily Pinkston Tanner C. Reese Nanette Smith Carter Stancil Benjamin J. Toscano Blaine D. Griffen |
| author_facet | Katia Quezada-Villa Zachary J. Cannizzo Jade Carver Robert P. Dunn Laura S. Fletcher Matthew E. Kimball Ainslee L. McMullin Brenden Orocu Bruce W. Pfirrmann Emily Pinkston Tanner C. Reese Nanette Smith Carter Stancil Benjamin J. Toscano Blaine D. Griffen |
| author_sort | Katia Quezada-Villa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Morphological traits have often been used to predict diet and trophic position of species across many animal groups. Variation in gut size of closely related animals is known to be a good predictor of dietary habits. Species that are more herbivorous or that persist on low-quality diets often have larger stomachs than their carnivorous counterparts. This same pattern exists in crabs and in most species, individuals exhibit external markings on the dorsal side of their carapace that appear to align with the position and size of their gut. We hypothesized that these external markings could be used as an accurate estimate of the crab’s cardiac stomach size, allowing an approximation of crab dietary strategies without the need to sacrifice and dissect individual animals. We used literature values for mean diet and standardized external gut size markings taken from crab photographs across 50 species to show that percent herbivory in the diet increases non-linearly across species of brachyuran crab with the external estimate of gut size. We also used data from dissections in four species to show that external gut markings were positively correlated with gut sizes, though the strength of this correlation differed across species. We conclude that when rough approximations of diet quality such as percent herbivory will suffice, measuring external carapace markings in crabs presents a quick, free, non-lethal alternative to dissections. Our results also provide important insights into tradeoffs that occur in crab morphology and have implications for crab evolution. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:57:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-530b6df54e6c43498b6a5265ac946bfb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:57:29Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-530b6df54e6c43498b6a5265ac946bfb2023-12-03T00:54:02ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592023-04-0111e1522410.7717/peerj.15224Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphologyKatia Quezada-Villa0Zachary J. Cannizzo1Jade Carver2Robert P. Dunn3Laura S. Fletcher4Matthew E. Kimball5Ainslee L. McMullin6Brenden Orocu7Bruce W. Pfirrmann8Emily Pinkston9Tanner C. Reese10Nanette Smith11Carter Stancil12Benjamin J. Toscano13Blaine D. Griffen14Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries—National Marine Protected Areas Center, Washington DC, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesBaruch Marine Field Laboratory, University of South Carolina, Georgetown, South Carolina, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesBaruch Marine Field Laboratory, University of South Carolina, Georgetown, South Carolina, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesBaruch Marine Field Laboratory, University of South Carolina, Georgetown, South Carolina, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, United StatesDepartment of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United StatesMorphological traits have often been used to predict diet and trophic position of species across many animal groups. Variation in gut size of closely related animals is known to be a good predictor of dietary habits. Species that are more herbivorous or that persist on low-quality diets often have larger stomachs than their carnivorous counterparts. This same pattern exists in crabs and in most species, individuals exhibit external markings on the dorsal side of their carapace that appear to align with the position and size of their gut. We hypothesized that these external markings could be used as an accurate estimate of the crab’s cardiac stomach size, allowing an approximation of crab dietary strategies without the need to sacrifice and dissect individual animals. We used literature values for mean diet and standardized external gut size markings taken from crab photographs across 50 species to show that percent herbivory in the diet increases non-linearly across species of brachyuran crab with the external estimate of gut size. We also used data from dissections in four species to show that external gut markings were positively correlated with gut sizes, though the strength of this correlation differed across species. We conclude that when rough approximations of diet quality such as percent herbivory will suffice, measuring external carapace markings in crabs presents a quick, free, non-lethal alternative to dissections. Our results also provide important insights into tradeoffs that occur in crab morphology and have implications for crab evolution.https://peerj.com/articles/15224.pdfDiet compositionDiet qualityGut sizeMorphological variationNonlethal methodsPercent herbivory |
| spellingShingle | Katia Quezada-Villa Zachary J. Cannizzo Jade Carver Robert P. Dunn Laura S. Fletcher Matthew E. Kimball Ainslee L. McMullin Brenden Orocu Bruce W. Pfirrmann Emily Pinkston Tanner C. Reese Nanette Smith Carter Stancil Benjamin J. Toscano Blaine D. Griffen Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology PeerJ Diet composition Diet quality Gut size Morphological variation Nonlethal methods Percent herbivory |
| title | Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| title_full | Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| title_fullStr | Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| title_short | Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| title_sort | predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology |
| topic | Diet composition Diet quality Gut size Morphological variation Nonlethal methods Percent herbivory |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/15224.pdf |
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