Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Performance And Scaling Of A Novel Locomotor Structure: Adhesive Capacity Of Climbing Gobiid Fishes, Richard W. Blob, Takashi Maie, Heiko L. Schoenfuss
Performance And Scaling Of A Novel Locomotor Structure: Adhesive Capacity Of Climbing Gobiid Fishes, Richard W. Blob, Takashi Maie, Heiko L. Schoenfuss
Publications
Many species of gobiid fishes adhere to surfaces using a sucker formed from fusion of the pelvic fins. Juveniles of many amphidromous species use this pelvic sucker to scale waterfalls during migrations to upstream habitats after an oceanic larval phase. However, adults may still use suckers to re-scale waterfalls if displaced. If attachment force is proportional to sucker area and if growth of the sucker is isometric, then increases in the forces that climbing fish must resist might outpace adhesive capacity, causing climbing performance to decline through ontogeny. To test for such trends, we measured pressure differentials and adhesive suction …
Forelimb Kinematics During Swimming In The Pig-Nosed Turtle, Carettochelys Insculpta, Compared With Other Turtle Taxa: Rowing Versus Flapping, Convergenceversus Intermediacy, Angela R.V. Rivera, Gabriel Rivera, Richard W. Blob
Forelimb Kinematics During Swimming In The Pig-Nosed Turtle, Carettochelys Insculpta, Compared With Other Turtle Taxa: Rowing Versus Flapping, Convergenceversus Intermediacy, Angela R.V. Rivera, Gabriel Rivera, Richard W. Blob
Publications
Animals that swim using appendages do so by way of rowing and/or flapping motions. Often considered discrete categories, rowing and flapping are more appropriately regarded as points along a continuum. The pig-nosed turtle, Carettochelys insculpta, is unusual in that it is the only freshwater turtle to have limbs modified into flippers and swim via synchronous forelimb motions that resemble dorsoventral flapping, traits that evolved independently from their presence in sea turtles. We used high-speed videography to quantify forelimb kinematics in C. insculpta and a closely related, highly aquatic rower (Apalone ferox). Comparisons of our new data with those previously collected …