Coastal Branch of Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba, 123 Yoshio, Katsuura, Chiba, 299-5242, Japan.
Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan.
Sci Data. 2022 Jul 4;9(1):368. doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01466-4.
A small pufferfish, Torquigener albomaculosus, is known to construct an elaborate geometric circular structure, which has been referred to as a "mystery circle," with a diameter of ~2 m in the sand of the seabed. We reconstructed a 3D model of this structure for the first time using a "structure from motion" (SfM) algorithm. The mystery circle constructed by the pufferfish may have potential applications for biomimetics similar to the structures constructed by termites and prairie dogs. To support the significance of its structural characteristics, it was observed that the water passing through the valley upstream always gathers in the center of the structure, regardless of the direction of water flow. Furthermore, it has the function of extracting fine-grained sand particles from the valleys and directing these to the center. Computational fluid analysis can be performed immediately using the quantified 3D data, and the structural features of the mystery circle is expected to be applied in a wide range of fields, such as architecture and engineering, via biomimetics.
一种小型的东方鲀，斑鳍东方鲀，被发现会在海底的沙地上构建一个直径约 2 米的复杂的几何圆形结构，被称为“神秘圈”。我们首次使用“运动结构重建”（SfM）算法对该结构进行了 3D 重建。这种由东方鲀构建的神秘圈可能具有与白蚁和草原犬鼠构建的结构类似的仿生学应用潜力。为了支持其结构特征的重要性，观察到流经上游山谷的水总是聚集在结构的中心，无论水流的方向如何。此外，它还有从山谷中提取细砂颗粒并将其引导至中心的功能。可以立即使用量化的 3D 数据进行计算流体分析，并且可以通过仿生学将神秘圈的结构特征应用于建筑和工程等广泛的领域。
