Biology Department, Providence College, Providence, RI 02918, United States of America.
Whitman Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, United States of America.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2024 Jan 23;19(2). doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/ad1db8.
Scyphomedusae are widespread in the oceans and their swimming has provided valuable insights into the hydrodynamics of animal propulsion. Most of this research has focused on symmetrical, linear swimming. However, in nature, medusae typically swim circuitous, nonlinear paths involving frequent turns. Here we describe swimming turns by the scyphomedusaduring which asymmetric bell margin motions produce rotation around a linearly translating body center. These jellyfish 'skid' through turns and the degree of asynchrony between opposite bell margins is an approximate predictor of turn magnitude during a pulsation cycle. The underlying neuromechanical organization of bell contraction contributes substantially to asynchronous bell motions and inserts a stochastic rotational component into the directionality of scyphomedusan swimming. These mechanics are important for natural populations because asynchronous bell contraction patterns are commonand result in frequent turns by naturally swimming medusae.
海月水母在海洋中广泛分布，其游动为动物推进的流体动力学提供了有价值的见解。大多数此类研究都集中在对称的线性游动上。然而，在自然界中，水母通常以迂回的、非线性的路径游动，其中涉及频繁的转弯。在这里，我们描述了海月水母的游动转弯，在此过程中，不对称的钟形边缘运动产生围绕线性平移体中心的旋转。这些水母“打滑”转弯，并且相对的钟形边缘之间的异步程度是脉动周期中转弯幅度的近似预测指标。钟形收缩的神经机械组织对异步钟形运动有很大贡献，并将随机旋转分量插入海月水母游泳的方向性中。这些力学对于自然种群很重要，因为异步的钟形收缩模式很常见，并且导致自然游动的水母频繁转弯。
