Seahorses have a super strong gulp thanks to two spring-like tendons

Seahorses have an unusually highly effective approach of gulping down prey and now we all know how they do it. They feed in a swift sucking movement powered by two spring-like tendons which concurrently set off an upward head sweep and a gulp of water. This permits the in any other case sluggish, small fish to seize prey in a single lightning-fast motion.

The quickest animal actions on the planet, from the snapping of mandibles of a trap-jaw ant to the highly effective punch of a mantis shrimp, are powered by spring mechanisms. Like drawing a crossbow, the animal’s muscular tissues pull tendons right into a latched place earlier than releasing the strain in an explosive movement.

Researchers already knew that seahorses had an elastic tendon on the again of their head that pushes their snout upward whereas feeding, however Roi Holzman at Tel Aviv University in Israel and colleagues discovered that this wouldn’t be sufficient to account for the shear sucking energy the small fish can generate.

In a comparability between three seahorse species and 10 different fish that shouldn’t have spring-feeding mechanisms, they discovered the seahorses might gulp water round eight occasions sooner than can be anticipated for his or her mouth measurement.

To attempt to establish how this was doable, the researchers illuminated a seahorse because it fed, permitting them to higher see by way of its semi-translucent pores and skin. They then noticed a second tendon, this one beneath the chin, that might present the additional oomph.

“We were able to actually see that the tendon contracts, which means that it can store elastic energy,” says Holzman. “This is cool because up until now, we didn’t really know of any elastic energy storage mechanism that serves two purposes,” he says, describing the simultaneous head thrust and water gulp.

“It nicely confirms the hypothesis that not only the rapid movement of the snout, but also the sucking up of food is done by these fishes at very high power,” says Sam Van Wassenbergh on the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Next, Holzman plan to research if seahorse species have totally different elastic-powered feeding mechanisms relying on their measurement and prey. “I’m sure that they have some other crazy innovations that we haven’t found,” he says.