Tooth microwear formation rate in Gasterosteus aculeatus.
Tooth microwear feature densities were significantly increased in a population of laboratory-reared three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus in four days, after they were transferred from a limnetic feeding regime to a benthic feeding regime. These results show that even in aquatic vertebrates with non-occluding teeth, changes in feeding can cause changes in tooth microwear in just a few days, as in mammals.
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, U.K.
D C
DC
Baines
M A
MA
Purnell
P J B
PJ
Hart
D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D057085:Tooth Wear
Gasterosteidae; benthic; feeding regime; limnetic; substrate; trophic niche