- Author
- Michael Porter, Dominique Adriaens (UGent) , Ross Hatton, Marc A Meyers and Joanna McKittrick
- Organization
- Abstract
- Whereas the predominant shapes of most animal tails are cylindrical, seahorse tails are square prisms. Seahorses use their tails as flexible grasping appendages, in spite of a rigid bony armor that fully encases their bodies. We explore the mechanics of two three-dimensional-printed models that mimic either the natural (square prism) or hypothetical (cylindrical) architecture of a seahorse tail to uncover whether or not the square geometry provides any functional advantages. Our results show that the square prism is more resilient when crushed and provides a mechanism for preserving articulatory organization upon extensive bending and twisting, as compared with its cylindrical counterpart. Thus, the square architecture is better than the circular one in the context of two integrated functions: grasping ability and crushing resistance.
- Keywords
- biomimetics, evolution, morphology, seahorse, tail, engineering, mechanical testing, SKELETAL TISSUES, ROBOTS, FISH, SKIN, HIPPOCAMPUS, LOCOMOTION, EVOLUTION, ANATOMY, LIZARDS, ARMOR
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-7074249
- MLA
- Porter, Michael, et al. “Why the Seahorse Tail Is Square.” SCIENCE, vol. 349, no. 6243, 2015, doi:10.1126/science.aaa6683.
- APA
- Porter, M., Adriaens, D., Hatton, R., Meyers, M. A., & McKittrick, J. (2015). Why the seahorse tail is square. SCIENCE, 349(6243). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa6683
- Chicago author-date
- Porter, Michael, Dominique Adriaens, Ross Hatton, Marc A Meyers, and Joanna McKittrick. 2015. “Why the Seahorse Tail Is Square.” SCIENCE 349 (6243). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa6683.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Porter, Michael, Dominique Adriaens, Ross Hatton, Marc A Meyers, and Joanna McKittrick. 2015. “Why the Seahorse Tail Is Square.” SCIENCE 349 (6243). doi:10.1126/science.aaa6683.
- Vancouver
- 1.Porter M, Adriaens D, Hatton R, Meyers MA, McKittrick J. Why the seahorse tail is square. SCIENCE. 2015;349(6243).
- IEEE
- [1]M. Porter, D. Adriaens, R. Hatton, M. A. Meyers, and J. McKittrick, “Why the seahorse tail is square,” SCIENCE, vol. 349, no. 6243, 2015.
@article{7074249,
abstract = {{Whereas the predominant shapes of most animal tails are cylindrical, seahorse tails are square prisms. Seahorses use their tails as flexible grasping appendages, in spite of a rigid bony armor that fully encases their bodies. We explore the mechanics of two three-dimensional-printed models that mimic either the natural (square prism) or hypothetical (cylindrical) architecture of a seahorse tail to uncover whether or not the square geometry provides any functional advantages. Our results show that the square prism is more resilient when crushed and provides a mechanism for preserving articulatory organization upon extensive bending and twisting, as compared with its cylindrical counterpart. Thus, the square architecture is better than the circular one in the context of two integrated functions: grasping ability and crushing resistance.}},
articleno = {{aaa6683}},
author = {{Porter, Michael and Adriaens, Dominique and Hatton, Ross and Meyers, Marc A and McKittrick, Joanna}},
issn = {{0036-8075}},
journal = {{SCIENCE}},
keywords = {{biomimetics,evolution,morphology,seahorse,tail,engineering,mechanical testing,SKELETAL TISSUES,ROBOTS,FISH,SKIN,HIPPOCAMPUS,LOCOMOTION,EVOLUTION,ANATOMY,LIZARDS,ARMOR}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{6243}},
pages = {{7}},
title = {{Why the seahorse tail is square}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa6683}},
volume = {{349}},
year = {{2015}},
}
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