Life Sciences Commons^™

Data From: Mechanisms Of Gill-Clogging By Hagfish Slime, Luke Taylor, Gaurav Chaudhary, Gaurav Jain, Andrew Lowe, Andre Hupe, Atsuko Negishi, Yu Zeng, Randy Ewoldt, Douglas Fudge

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Data Sets

Abstract of Proc. Roy. Soc. article:

Hagfishes defend themselves from gill-breathing predators by producing large volumes of fibrous slime when attacked. The slime’s effectiveness comes from its ability to clog predators’ gills, but the mechanisms by which hagfish slime clogs are uncertain, especially given its remarkably dilute concentration of solids. We quantified the clogging performance of hagfish slime over a range of concentrations, measured the contributions of its mucous and thread components, and measured the effect of turbulent mixing on clogging. To assess the porous structure of hagfish slime, we used a custom device to measure its Darcy permeability. We …