(September 1, 2015) The
University of Oregon's Kelly Sutherland has seen the future of under-sea
exploration by studying the swimming prowess of tiny jellyfish gathered from
Puget Sound off Washington's San Juan Island.
In a paper with four colleagues in the Sept. 2 issue of the
journal Nature Communications, Sutherland details how a tiny type of jellyfish
— colonial siphonophores — swim rapidly by coordinating multiple water-shooting
jets from separate but genetically identical units that make up the animal.
Information on the biomechanics of a living organism that
uses such a coordinated system ought to inspire "a natural solution to
multi-engine organization that may contribute to the expanding field of
underwater-distributed propulsion vehicle design," the co-authors conclude
in their paper.
"This is a very interesting system for studying
propulsion, because these jellies have multiple swimming bells to use for
propulsion," said Sutherland, a biologist with both the UO's Oregon
Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston and the Robert D. Clark Honors
College on the Eugene campus. "This is relatively rare in the animal
kingdom. Most organisms that swim with propulsion do so with a single jet.
These siphonophores can turn on a dime, and very rapidly."
The jellies studied are Nanomia bijuga. They are members of
the phylum Cnidaria, whose members have specialized stinging cells that are
used mainly for capturing prey.
N. bijuga rarely exceed two inches in length but with
tentacles can extend to a foot long. Samples were collected — most often at
night when their translucent bodies are easily seen with light over the dark
water — with cups off the floating docks at the University of Washington's
Friday Harbor Laboratories. Individual colonies contained from four to 12
jet-like structures known as nectophores.