Water and all forms of water travel have long fascinated man. With his fascination and the realization that humans are ill-suited for water travel that doesn't involve remaining on the surface, an appreciation for a fish's ability to move in three dimensions with relative ease was also devloped. Although we may not fully understand the physics involved how fish swim, it is obvious from the fascination and the breadth of reseach that it will remain a goal of the modern sicientist.
A fish's ability to propel itself efficiently through water is paramount to its likelihood to succeed. But before a fish need worry about any of the complications associated with moving through water (hydrodynamic drag, turbulence, buoyancy, etc.) it must first solve the problem of locomotion. The most common method for solving this problem is by muscle contraction and relaxation.
The forward thrust force is created by movement of the caudal (tail) fin and varying amounts of the surrounding muscle (up to the entire body for fish that swim similar to eels) in an undulating motion. The importance of this mechanism manifests itself in the fact that 80% of a fish's body is composed of muscle used for propulsion and maneuvering.
Since fish live in an environment in which they need to move in three dimensions, buoyancy plays a significant role in determining a fish's ability to swim efficiently. Fish use a couple of different strategies to solve this problem. Denser fish use their pectoral fins to create dynamic lift, similar to planes and birds. As these fish swim, their pectoral fins are positioned in such a way as to create a difference in pressure which allows the fish to maintain a certain depth. The two major drawbacks of ...
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Low oxygen consumption rates were reported in this study, most likely due to the low standard metabolic rates of the nurse sharks. The nurse sharks also had a lower routine metabolic rate compared to other species which was attributed to their slower swimming speeds. Metabolic rate increased with temperature. The cost of transport was lower than is found in other species. This was attributed to the nurse sharks inactivity and less streamlined body. The cost of activity is high compared to other shark species. This means that nurse sharks have a higher metabolic cost of activity when switching from rest to movement. The difference in values found in nurse sharks as compared to other species is attributed to their less streamlined
Study done from the available fossils show that the body of Liopleurodon was very streamlined and adapted to swimming. Its body had four limbs which were paddle-like in shape. These paddle shaped limbs acted like propellers which made it
The background of this article gives information that is necessary to understand the experiment. The shape of the pelvic girdle is an appropriate predictor of both phylogeny and movement in terrestrial vertebrates. However, in marine vertebrates, the gravitational forces typically applied to terrestrial pelvic girdles are not there and therefore have little impact on the shape of the girdle. Pelvic girdles of fish are generally not attached to the vertebrae and primarily are used as a place for muscles to attach and supporting of the fins. The authors discuss how in many cases the pelvic girdle could be removed and not result in any complications. However, there are some marine vertebrates that are capable of bottom walking on the ocean floor with their fins. In batoids, the pelvic fins are used for walking, which is when pelvic fins move in an alternating fashion, or punting, when both pelvic fins move at the same time. There is also augmented punting; this is when the vertebrate uses both the pectoral fins and the pelvic fins to generate more thrust, this action decreases the forces on the pelvic fins during a punt. While this locomotion would
When a river flows downstream it frequently encounters obstacles and changes in the river channel that form “rapids, particularly turbulent water with a rough surface. Rapids also form where the channel abruptly narrows or its gradient changes, suddenly accelerating the water.”(Marshak, 2009) These changes in the dynamics of the river flow create the rapids that modern day thrill seekers look for.
Retrieved 14 May 2014, from http://www.teachpe.com/a_level_analysis/movement_analysis_webpage.html. Thibodeau, G., & Patton, K. (1993). "The Species of the World. " Chapter ten: Anatomy of the muscular system. In Anatomy and Physiology (1st ed., p. 252).
Fish fins developed around 500 million years ago. A fin is a thin appendage attached to the body of an organism that causes either propulsion, stabilization, or the ability to steer and brake. The median caudal, dorsal, and anal fins are possessed by most fish species. The rainbow trout has six different types of fins- an anal fin, an adipose fin, a dorsal fin, a caudal fin, a pair of pelvic fins, and a pair of pectoral fins.
To do a front dive a diver pushes his hips upward just slightly as he leaves the board. After he had begun to go up into the air, he throws his arms downward just enough to make is upper torso rotate around his hips. At the peak of the dive, the diver tightens his stomach muscles and pulls his legs up towards the sky, leaving his body in a perfect upside-down position to enter the water head-first.
For this experiment, it is important to be familiar with the diving reflex. The diving reflex is found in all mammals and is mainly focused with the preservation of oxygen. The diving reflex refers to an animal surviving underwater without oxygen. They survive longer underwater than on dry land. In order for animals to remain under water for a longer period of time, they use their stored oxygen, decrease oxygen consumption, use anaerobic metabolism, as well as aquatic respiration (Usenko 2017). As stated by Michael Panneton, the size of oxygen stores in animals will also limit aerobic dive capacity (Panneton 2013). The temperature of the water also plays a role. The colder the water is, the larger the diving reflex of oxygen.
From the surface to its deepest depth the ocean is 11km deep, and with this distance comes a vast change in physiological feature of fish as they try to survive the changing conditions.
With smiles on our faces we cast our wisely selected lures into the ocean, but we then encountered our first problem of saltwater fishing. Our lures wouldn’t sink. As soon as they hit the water, the ocean current would just buoy them to the surface and, soon after, down current into the line of a nearby fisherman. Improvising our rigs, we dug the heaviest weights out of our tackle boxes and clamped them onto our lures. Sure enough, we got our lures underwater and under control.
The morphology of whale sharks is mostly similar to aquatic fish species, but many specific traits help differentiate them from the rest. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world and can reach a size of around 20 meters (Martins, C., and C. Knickle). This is often compared to the size of a school bus. The shark has a very large transverse mouth. They have 5 very large gill slits and have a larger first dorsal fin compared to the second one (Whale Shark). They have a distinctive spotted “checkerboard” pattern with stripes (Martins, C., and C. Knickle). It is not exactly known why they have this specific body marking. It is believed that the body markings act as a camouflage. The strange thing about whale sharks is that they have 300 rows of teeth that play no role in feeding (Martins, C., and C. Knickle).
Sensory systems are essential to a mammal’s survival and for providing important information concerning their internal and external environment (Hill et al., 2011). Sensory systems depend on specialized sensory receptor cells that respond to stimuli, either from the mammals’ internal or external environment (2011). One form of sensory is electroreception, which is the detection of electrical currents or fields in aquatic mammals and mechanoreceptors are specialized to respond to different types of mechanical stimuli, such as touch, taste, smell, etc. (2011). The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) exhibits electroreception with the help of mechanoreceptors to detect prey item while submerged in water.
Dinoflagellates have a pair of flagellum, transverse flagellum, that are wound up around the body and then when whipped in a wavelike fashion causes the cell to go in a spinning motion, giving it a forward propulsion. This helps the dinoflagellates keep their planktonic existence because it can help them stay at the top of the water column, making it easier for them to perform