Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales
High efficiency lunate-tail swimming with high-aspect-ratio lifting surfaces has evolved in many vertebrate lineages, from fish to cetaceans. Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest swimming animals that exhibit this locomotor strategy, and present an ideal study system to examine how morphology a...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8317509 2023-05-15T13:45:58+02:00 Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales Gough, William T. Smith, Hayden J. Savoca, Matthew S. Czapanskiy, Max F. Fish, Frank E. Potvin, Jean Bierlich, K. C. Cade, David E. Di Clemente, Jacopo Kennedy, John Segre, Paolo Stanworth, Andrew Weir, Caroline Goldbogen, Jeremy A. 2021-07-09 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8317509/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109418 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 en eng The Company of Biologists Ltd http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8317509/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109418 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. CC-BY J Exp Biol Research Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 2021-08-08T00:42:24Z High efficiency lunate-tail swimming with high-aspect-ratio lifting surfaces has evolved in many vertebrate lineages, from fish to cetaceans. Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest swimming animals that exhibit this locomotor strategy, and present an ideal study system to examine how morphology and the kinematics of swimming scale to the largest body sizes. We used data from whale-borne inertial sensors coupled with morphometric measurements from aerial drones to calculate the hydrodynamic performance of oscillatory swimming in six baleen whale species ranging in body length from 5 to 25 m (fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus; Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni; sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis; Antarctic minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis; humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae; and blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus). We found that mass-specific thrust increased with both swimming speed and body size. Froude efficiency, defined as the ratio of useful power output to the rate of energy input ( Sloop, 1978), generally increased with swimming speed but decreased on average with increasing body size. This finding is contrary to previous results in smaller animals, where Froude efficiency increased with body size. Although our empirically parameterized estimates for swimming baleen whale drag were higher than those of a simple gliding model, oscillatory locomotion at this scale exhibits generally high Froude efficiency as in other adept swimmers. Our results quantify the fine-scale kinematics and estimate the hydrodynamics of routine and energetically expensive swimming modes at the largest scale. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Minke whale Balaenoptera bonaerensis Balaenoptera borealis Balaenoptera musculus Balaenoptera physalus baleen whale baleen whales Blue whale Fin whale Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae minke whale Sei Whale PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Journal of Experimental Biology 224 13 |
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English |
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Research Article |
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Research Article Gough, William T. Smith, Hayden J. Savoca, Matthew S. Czapanskiy, Max F. Fish, Frank E. Potvin, Jean Bierlich, K. C. Cade, David E. Di Clemente, Jacopo Kennedy, John Segre, Paolo Stanworth, Andrew Weir, Caroline Goldbogen, Jeremy A. Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
High efficiency lunate-tail swimming with high-aspect-ratio lifting surfaces has evolved in many vertebrate lineages, from fish to cetaceans. Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are the largest swimming animals that exhibit this locomotor strategy, and present an ideal study system to examine how morphology and the kinematics of swimming scale to the largest body sizes. We used data from whale-borne inertial sensors coupled with morphometric measurements from aerial drones to calculate the hydrodynamic performance of oscillatory swimming in six baleen whale species ranging in body length from 5 to 25 m (fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus; Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni; sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis; Antarctic minke whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis; humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae; and blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus). We found that mass-specific thrust increased with both swimming speed and body size. Froude efficiency, defined as the ratio of useful power output to the rate of energy input ( Sloop, 1978), generally increased with swimming speed but decreased on average with increasing body size. This finding is contrary to previous results in smaller animals, where Froude efficiency increased with body size. Although our empirically parameterized estimates for swimming baleen whale drag were higher than those of a simple gliding model, oscillatory locomotion at this scale exhibits generally high Froude efficiency as in other adept swimmers. Our results quantify the fine-scale kinematics and estimate the hydrodynamics of routine and energetically expensive swimming modes at the largest scale. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gough, William T. Smith, Hayden J. Savoca, Matthew S. Czapanskiy, Max F. Fish, Frank E. Potvin, Jean Bierlich, K. C. Cade, David E. Di Clemente, Jacopo Kennedy, John Segre, Paolo Stanworth, Andrew Weir, Caroline Goldbogen, Jeremy A. |
author_facet |
Gough, William T. Smith, Hayden J. Savoca, Matthew S. Czapanskiy, Max F. Fish, Frank E. Potvin, Jean Bierlich, K. C. Cade, David E. Di Clemente, Jacopo Kennedy, John Segre, Paolo Stanworth, Andrew Weir, Caroline Goldbogen, Jeremy A. |
author_sort |
Gough, William T. |
title |
Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
title_short |
Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
title_full |
Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
title_fullStr |
Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales |
title_sort |
scaling of oscillatory kinematics and froude efficiency in baleen whales |
publisher |
The Company of Biologists Ltd |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8317509/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109418 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Minke whale Balaenoptera bonaerensis Balaenoptera borealis Balaenoptera musculus Balaenoptera physalus baleen whale baleen whales Blue whale Fin whale Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae minke whale Sei Whale |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Minke whale Balaenoptera bonaerensis Balaenoptera borealis Balaenoptera musculus Balaenoptera physalus baleen whale baleen whales Blue whale Fin whale Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae minke whale Sei Whale |
op_source |
J Exp Biol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8317509/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34109418 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 |
op_rights |
© 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.237586 |
container_title |
Journal of Experimental Biology |
container_volume |
224 |
container_issue |
13 |
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1766233773852065792 |