Skin Is the Key
The biologists discovered that the skin of the shark is the key to the animal’s high efficiency in swimming through the water. The skin contains many fibers that crisscross like the inside of a belted radial tire. The fibers are called collagen fibers. These fibers can either store or release large amounts of energy depending on whether the fibers are relaxed or taut. When the fibers are stretched, energy is stored in them the way energy is stored in the string of a bow when pulled tight. When the energy is released, the fibers become relaxed.
The Duke University biologists have found that the greatest stretching occurs where the shark bends its body while swimming. During the body’s back and forth motion, fibers along the outside part of the bending body stretch greatly. Much potential energy is stored in the fibers. This energy is released when the shark’s body snaps back the other way.
As energy is alternately stored and released on both sides of the animal’s body, the tail whips strongly back and forth. This whip-like action propels the animal through the water like a living bullet.
Source of Energy
What causes the fibers to store so much energy? In finding the answer the Duke University scientists learned that the sharks similarity to a belted radial tire doesnt stop with the skin. Just as a radial tire is inflated by pressure, so, too, is the area just under the sharks collagen “radials”. Instead of air pressure, however, the pressure in the shark may be due to the force of the blood pressing on the collagen fibers.
When the shark swims slowly, the pressure on the fibers is relatively low. The fibers are more relaxed, and the shark is able to bend its body at sharp angles. The animal swims this way when looking around for food or just swimming. However, when the shark detects an important food source, some fantastic involuntary changes take place.
The pressure inside the animal may increase by 10 times. This pressure change greatly stretches the fibers, enabling much energy to be stored.
This energy is then transferred to the tail, and the shark is off. The rest of the story is predictable.
Dolphin Has Speed Record
Another fast marine animal is the dolphin. This seagoing mammal has been clocked at speeds of 32 kilometers (20 miles) an hour. Biologists studying the dolphin have discovered that, like the shark, the animal’s efficient locomotion can be traced to its skin. A dolphin’s skin is made up in such a way that it offers very little resistance to the water flowing over it. Normally when a fish or other object moves slowly through the water, the water flows smoothly past the body. This smooth flow is known as laminar flow. However, at faster speeds the water becomes more turbulent along the moving fish. This turbulence muses friction and slows the fish down.
In a dolphin the skin is so flexible that it bends and yields to the waviness of the water.
The waves, in effect, become tucked into the skin’s folds. This allows the rest of the water to move smoothly by in a laminar flow. Where other animals would be slowed by turbulent water at rapid speeds, the dolphin can race through the water at record breaking speeds.
