From soaring snakes to surfing suckerfish, nature is an endless source of inspiration
Suckerfish Surf on the Backs of Other Sea Creatures
Remoras are the ocean’s hitchhikers. Also known as suckerfish, whalesuckers or sharksuckers, the one-to-three-foot long swimmers anchor themselves to blue whales or zebra sharks with a suction cup-like disc that “sits on their head like a flat, sticky hat,” according to the New York Times. But these suckerfish aren’t just mooching a free ride. This year, researchers found that the fish can actually “surf” along their chauffeur’s back while the pair is in transit. The remoras glide along their host’s body, clustering near a whale’s blowhole and dorsal fin where there is minimal drag—all the while nibbling on dead skin and parasites.
Fish Fins Are as Sensitive as Fingertips
Fish fins aren’t just for steering and swimming, University of Chicago neuroscientist Adam Hardy and his lab found this year. In fact, the researchers discovered that fins are as sensitive as primate fingertips. To reach this conclusion, the scientists studied round gobies, a type of bottom dwelling fish native to places like the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, but invasive populations live anywhere from European rivers to the Great Lakes. These little critters are known to “perch” on rocks, brushing their fins along the rock bed of lakes.
The Diabolical Ironclad Beetle’s Exoskeleton Is Indestructible
The diabolical ironclad beetle absolutely lives up to its name. While most bugs live only a few weeks, these beetles have a lifespan of about eight years, which is roughly the equivalent of a human living several thousand years. To achieve such a feat, they’ve evolved some remarkable armor.
The roughly inch-long insect can survive being run over by a car—and if you can’t believe that, University of California, Irvine engineer David Kisailus and his team piled in a Toyota Camry and ran one over twice, and it lived. After several more technical experiments, the team found the beetle can withstand immense pressure—up to 39,000 times its own body weight.
The Ultra-Black Pigmentation of Sixteen Species of Deep-Sea Fish Is Explained
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When National Museum of Natural History marine biologist Karen Osborn and her team accidentally pulled up a deep ocean fangtooth fish in their net of crabs, they tried to take its picture. But try as they might, details of the jet-black fish couldn’t be captured. The fish was literally unphotogenic, they later learned, because its tissue was absorbing 99.5 percent of the light from a camera’s flash.
The fangtooth, and 15 other species included in the study, sport ultra-black pigmentation that allows them to blend in to the pitch-dark environment of the deep ocean. Though light can’t reach this part of the ocean, some fish are bioluminescent. For sneaky predators, camouflaging into the dark abyss—or better yet absorbing light—is nature’s best invisibility cloak.
Plenty of animals on land and sea have very black coloring, but human-made color reflects around 10 percent of light and most other black fish reflect 2 percent of light. To cross the ultra-black threshold, these 16 species had to only reflect .5 percent of all light shining their way. These species achieved this feat with densely-packed, jumbo-sized, capsule-shaped melanosomes, or cells containing dark pigment. In other black, but not ultra-black, animals, melanosomes are loosely spread out, smaller and rounder in shape.
When Soaring From Tree to Tree, Tropical Snakes Undulate for Stability
The snakes flatten their round torso into a flattened, triangular shape in order to catch more air and glide from one tree to another, sometimes dozens of feet away. But the whole side-to-side, loopy lunges they do in the air didn’t make as much sense to scientists. That is until Socha and his team rented out Virginia Tech’s four-story black box arena called the Cube. In it, they outfitted seven flying snakes in reflective tape and recorded their leaps on high speed cameras more than 150 times. (Don’t worry. The team had to pass snake safety protocol, and the arena was equipped with foam floors and fake trees.)
Snake flight happens really fast, so the reflective tape allowed the team to recreate the flight using 3-D computer modeling. The team found that the snakes undulated vertically twice as often as they did horizontally, moving their tail up and down as well. Virginia Tech mechanical engineer Isaac Yeaton told the Times, “Other animals undulate for propulsion. We show that flying snakes undulate for stability.”
The snakes flatten their round torso into a flattened, triangular shape in order to catch more air and glide from one tree to another, sometimes dozens of feet away. But the whole side-to-side, loopy lunges they do in the air didn’t make as much sense to scientists. That is until Socha and his team rented out Virginia Tech’s four-story black box arena called the Cube. In it, they outfitted seven flying snakes in reflective tape and recorded their leaps on high speed cameras more than 150 times. (Don’t worry. The team had to pass snake safety protocol, and the arena was equipped with foam floors and fake trees.)
Snake flight happens really fast, so the reflective tape allowed the team to recreate the flight using 3-D computer modeling. The team found that the snakes undulated vertically twice as often as they did horizontally, moving their tail up and down as well. Virginia Tech mechanical engineer Isaac Yeaton told the Times, “Other animals undulate for propulsion. We show that flying snakes undulate for stability.”
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