ArticleThe Journal of experimental biology2026
Experimental evidence for a suction-biting performance tradeoff in Mesoamerican cichlids.
Article in The Journal of experimental biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Tradeoffs can occur when multiple functions are shared by a single mechanical system, where changes to the system that improve the performance of one function necessarily lead to a decrease in performance of a second function. The teleost oral jaws are a complex mechanical system, and a multifunction tradeoff is thought to exist between the opposing functions of suction-based and biting-based feeding. We experimentally measured suction- and biting-based feeding performance across 10 heroine cichlid species spanning a range of ecomorphological diversity to test for the presence of a suction-biting tradeoff. We found an inverse relationship between suction-based and biting-based feeding performance across species, as well as significant relationships between performance and morphological features of the oral jaws, where larger oral-jaw gape and greater protrusion were associated with improved suction-feeding and decreased benthic-feeding performance. We observed a fivefold range among species in biting rates during benthic-feeding trials, with a twofold range observed among benthic-feeding specialists, and propose that diversity in the properties of attached prey has generated diversity among biting-based specialists reliant on high-force bites versus those reliant on high biting rates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.