Table 1.
Details of deployment sites, observation dates, and carcass sizes for alligator falls in the Gulf of Mexico.
Fig 1.
Map of the three alligator fall study sites in the northeast Gulf of Mexico.
Fig 2.
Alligator 1 deployed at WF1 during February 2019.
A) B. giganteus feeding and in the vicinity a Macrourid after one day B) Left lateral view showing pit excavated by B. giganteus after two days C) B. giganteus visibly inside the rib cage of the alligator after two days D) Right lateral view of alligator with more B. giganteus feeding.
Fig 3.
Bioturbation generated by feeding activities of B. giganteus A) left lateral view of sediment kicked up by feeding activities B) tightly packed B. giganteus around the dermal opening excavate under the alligator as they leverage for space.
Fig 4.
Alligator 2 deployed at WF2 during February 2019.
A) Macrourid investigating alligator carcass on day of deployment B) Bones of alligator 2 51 days after deployment resting next to rope and weight C) Vertebrae and for legs of alligator 2 upon investigation 51 days since deployment D) Skull of alligator 2 with red hue of filamentous Osedax seen on lower jaw.
Fig 5.
Alligator 3 deployed at WF3 during April 2019.
A) resting on sea floor after deployment B) drag marks, weight and disturbed sediment was all that remained of alligator 3 in the 8 days since deployment.
Fig 6.
Scavenging rates (kg per day) versus total mass (kg) of animal falls in the deep sea.
Point color denotes animal type. Circles denote animal falls that reached mobile scavenger stage and triangles those animal falls that reached sulfophilic stages. Green square represents A. mississippiensis from this study. The base of the green line represents the scavenging rate if A. mississippiensis had been consumed in 3 days. The solid line represents an exponential regression fit for food falls and the dashed line the Loess smoothed fit for just non-teleost communities. Data originally from Higgs et al. [28].