Undulation frequency affects burial performance in living and model flatfishes
Autor: | Ian MacDonald, Amberle McKee, Stacy C. Farina, Adam P. Summers |
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Rok vydání: | 2015 |
Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Dorsum biology Behavior Animal Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Animal Fins Psettichthys melanostictus Thin layer biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Models Biological Biomechanical Phenomena Flatfish Oceanography Lepidopsetta Crypsis Hippoglossoides Flatfishes Animals Animal Science and Zoology |
Zdroj: | Zoology (Jena, Germany). 119(2) |
ISSN: | 1873-2720 |
Popis: | Flatfishes bury themselves under a thin layer of sand to hide from predators or to ambush prey. We investigated the role of undulation frequency of the body in burial in five species of flatfishes (Isopsetta isolepis, Lepidopsetta bilineata, Hippoglossoides elassodon, Parophrys vetulus, and Psettichthys melanostictus). High-speed videos show that undulations begin cranially and pass caudally while burying, as in forward swimming in many other fishes. The flatfishes also flick the posterior edge of their dorsal and anal fins during burial, which may increase the total surface area covered by substrate. We built a simple physical model - a flexible, oval silicone plate with a motorized, variable-speed actuator - to isolate the effect of undulation frequency on burial. In both the model and actuated dead flatfish, increased undulation frequency resulted in an increase in the area of sand coverage. Complete coverage required an undulation frequency of no more than 10Hz for our models, and that was also sufficient for live flatfishes. The model shows that undulation is sufficient to bury the animal, but live flatfishes showed a superior ability to bury, which we attribute to the action of the median fins. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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