Ecological lifestyle and gill slit height across sharks

Abstract

Morphology that is linked to metabolic rate - metabolic morphology - provides broad comparative insights into the physiological performance and ecological function of species. However, some metabolic morphological traits, such as gill surface area, require costly and lethal sampling. Measurements from anatomically-accurate drawings, such as those in field guides, offer the opportunity to understand physiological and ecological relationships without the need for physical, lethal sampling. Here, we assess the relationship between the metabolic physiology and ecology of nearly all extant sharks. Specifically, we examine the relationship between gill slit height and each of the three traits that comprise ecological lifestyle: activity, maximum size, and depth. We find that gill slit heights are positively related to activity (measured by the aspect ratio of the caudal fin) and maximum size but negatively related to depth. We also show that gill slit height is best explained by the suite of ecological lifestyle traits rather than any single trait. These results suggest that more active, larger, and shallower species have higher metabolic demands and that these greater metabolic demands can be estimated from external morphological and ecological traits. Our work demonstrates that meaningful ecophysiological relationships can be revealed through measurable metabolic morphological traits from anatomically-accurate drawings.