The brute kingdom is full of species with the musculus mightiness to makerapid movements . Some mintage have even evolved latch - mediate outflow - touch off ( LaMSA ) mechanism that help them move even faster , letting them catch prey , alternate higher , and close their jaw faster than ever . These types of LaMSA actions are usually get in invertebrates but now a fresh craniate has join the listing in the form of some seriously slurpy seahorses .
These LaMSA actions mould like those children ’s toy where a tiresome apparent movement is used to charge an elastic part before the tension is abruptly unloosen . Syngnathiformes , the animal order that includesseahorses , needlefish , and snipefishes , capture quarry using a technique acknowledge as “ pivot feeding ” . This means the head of a seahorse can be turn upwards towards a prey item within a topic of msec . However just flex to be near the prey is not quite enough , the seahorses also need to be able-bodied to speedily slurp the quarry into their schnoz to avoid them escaping .
Seahorses feed by a method acting standardized to lactate up food in a vacuum cleaner known as suction flow . The squad found that to be successful during prey capture , the walrus had to simultaneously use the pivot eating technique and return a suck flow let them to slurp up their quarry .
They discover that the sucking flows are eight times faster than expected base on the size of the seahorse snoot . They also identified that sea horse suction flow heyday around 2.1 milliseconds , with pivot feeding peaking at an extremely fast 2.5 milliseconds . The bluegill(Lepomis macrochirus),by contrast , has a suction flow peaking at 33 milliseconds . Loser .
So how can these super speedy slurpy seahorses attain these impressive speeds ? The team detect that the epaxial tendons , which are connect to the supraoccipital bone at the back of the seahorse ’s foreland , are primed to kick back fast . The elastic vigor is stored in these tendons much like a shaver ’s wind instrument - up toy . This reveals a new LaMSA movement within the sea horse . The team also think that another tendon , called the sternohyoideus tendon , contract during feeding helping to sire the suction feed .
Overall , the team conclude that the sea horse are able to slurp their quarry especially quickly because two thing are able to happen at the same time thanks to their LaMSA system , which is control by two tendons within the promontory . This is vital for the seahorses because their fair game can also turn tail super fast , meaning the seahorses have to turn and slurp quicker before the prey can realize what ’s happening and initiate an escape response .
The paper is publish inProceedings Of The Royal Society B.
