Journal d'océanographie et de recherche marine
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Abstrait

Explaining the Crude and Simple Mechanics of Parasitic Feeding by Conodonts

Michael Iannicelli

The purpose of the study is to provide novel details about how the ubiquitous, jawless, parasitic, conodont-animal: created tiny conduits within their host-victim’s epidermis in order to withdraw its body fluids; and then granulized any fragments broken down from the epidermis. It is determined here that the driving-force was solely due to the frantic, fluttering movements of the host-victim while trying to free itself from the parasitic attachment of the condont(s). This induced an oscillating, back and forth movement of the epidermis towards stationary, S-element denticles which resulted in a poking and/or scraping action until shearing of the epidermis was achieved. Analogous to that, would be thorns on a wooden stem because accidental movement by animals into stationary, sharp thorns result in penetration and cutting of an epidermis. That analogy is supported by the simple fact of maximal sharpness shared by thorns and the renowned denticles. Likewise, the above concept is applied to the occlusion of P-element denticles. Occlusion was mechanically powered by the same, jerking-movements of the parasitized, host-victim which resulted in the P-element denticles either rocking or rattling back and forth against each other which accomplished pulverization of food-fragments. This altogether implies that the conodont brain had no control over the occlusion of its own denticles because the denticles’ job of shearing and crushing was synchronized to the distressed movements of the parasitized, host-victim.