Seahorses have a very powerful way of swallowing prey, and we now know how. They feed with a rapid sucking motion powered by two spring-like tendons. This movement simultaneously causes an upward head sweep and a sip of water. This allows small, normally slow-moving fish to catch prey in one lightning-like movement of her.
From the snap of an ant’s mandible to the powerful punch of a mantis shrimp, the world’s fastest animal movements are powered by a spring mechanism. Like pulling a crossbow, the animal’s muscles pull the tendons into a latched position before releasing the tension in an explosive motion.
Researchers already knew that seahorses have elastic tendons at the back of their heads that allow them to produce small fish.
The seahorse uses spring motion to quickly capture prey.
Shutterstock/Azahara Perez
A comparison of three seahorse species with 10 other fish species without a spring feeding mechanism showed that seahorses can swallow water about eight times faster than would be expected from their mouth size. discovered.
To determine how this was possible, the researchers shone a light on the feeding seahorses so they could better see through their translucent skin. Then I discovered her second tendon under her chin.
“We could actually see the tendons contracting, which means they can store elastic energy,” says Holzman. “This is exciting because so far there are no known elastic energy storage mechanisms that serve a dual purpose.”
Sam Van Wassenbergh of the University of Antwerp (Belgium) says, “It does well to support the hypothesis that not only rapid nasal movements, but also food sucking is very powerfully performed by these fish.”
Next, Holtzmann plans to investigate whether seahorse species have different elastically-powered feeding mechanisms depending on their size and prey. There must be others,” he says.
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