LONDON: Senior author of the study, John Dabiri from the Stanford University, said, “It confounds all our assumptions”.
Lampreys and jellyfish – two creatures you wouldn’t normally associate together. “However, it turns out that at least with a few of the most energetically efficient swimmers, low pressure dominates and allows these animals to pull themselves forward with suction”. Then the water in front of the lampreys moves to fill that pocket.
It saves energy and allows them to glide in elegant pulsating movements through the water. The professor of civil and environmental engineering and of mechanical engineering at Stanford University goes on to say, “Our experiments show that jellyfish and lampreys actually suck water toward themselves to move forward instead of pushing against the water behind them, as had been previously supposed”.
It’s always been thought that this is essentially how the ocean’s more naturally gifted swimmers move: A fish might swing its tail back and forth, pushing against the water.
A radically different swimming technique enables creatures like eels and jellyfish to be highly efficient swimmers, traveling from point A to point B while expending far less energy than any other type of aquatic creature ever measured, according to a new study.
As the saying unfolds “the fact that jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains they mastered their skills of swimming”.
