MICHAEL PORTER, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY
Examine a cross-section of a seahorse’s tail, and you’ll find a square instead of a circular pattern. To understand why, an international group of researchers combined computer modeling and 3-D printing. The results of their analysis were published in Science last week (July 3).
“Almost all animal tails have circular or oval cross-sections—but not the seahorse’s,” study coauthor Michael Porter, who studies mechanical engineering at Clemson University in South Carolina, said in a press release. “We found that the squared-shaped tails are better when both grasping and armor are needed.”
According to Smithsonian, unlike other fish, seahorses use their tails to grasp objects such as coral or prey rather than to swim. The scientists modeled the segmented seahorse tail and compared its mechanics to those ...
