Supplementary material from "Effects of body plan evolution on the hydrodynamic drag and energy requirements of swimming in ichthyosaurs"
Version 2 2019-03-04, 04:50
Version 1 2019-02-19, 09:14
Posted on 2019-03-04 - 04:50
Ichthyosaurs are an extinct group of fully marine tetrapods that were well adapted to aquatic locomotion. During their approximately 160 Myr existence, they evolved from elongate and serpentine forms into stockier, fish-like animals, convergent with sharks and dolphins. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to quantify the impact of this transition on the energy demands of ichthyosaur swimming, to our knowledge for the first time. We run computational simulations of water flow using three-dimensional digital models of nine ichthyosaurs and an extant functional analogue, a bottlenose dolphin, providing, to our knowledge, the first quantitative evaluation of ichthyosaur hydrodynamics across phylogeny. Our results show that morphology did not have a major effect on the drag coefficient or the energy cost of steady swimming through geological time. We show that even the early ichthyosaurs produced low levels of drag for a given volume, comparable to those of a modern dolphin, and that deep ‘torpedo-shaped’ bodies did not reduce the cost of locomotion. Our analysis also provides important insight into the choice of scaling parameters for CFD applied to swimming mechanics, and underlines the great influence of body size evolution on ichthyosaur locomotion. A combination of large bodies and efficient swimming modes lowered the cost of steady swimming as ichthyosaurs became increasingly adapted to a pelagic existence.
CITE THIS COLLECTION
DataCite
3 Biotech
3D Printing in Medicine
3D Research
3D-Printed Materials and Systems
4OR
AAPG Bulletin
AAPS Open
AAPS PharmSciTech
Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg
ABI Technik (German)
Academic Medicine
Academic Pediatrics
Academic Psychiatry
Academic Questions
Academy of Management Discoveries
Academy of Management Journal
Academy of Management Learning and Education
Academy of Management Perspectives
Academy of Management Proceedings
Academy of Management Review
Gutarra, Susana; Moon, Benjamin C.; A. Rahman, Imran; Palmer, Colin; Lautenschlager, Stephan; Brimacombe, Alison J.; et al. (2019). Supplementary material from "Effects of body plan evolution on the hydrodynamic drag and energy requirements of swimming in ichthyosaurs". The Royal Society. Collection. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4406201.v2
or
Select your citation style and then place your mouse over the citation text to select it.
SHARE
Usage metrics
Read the peer-reviewed publication
AUTHORS (7)
SG
Susana Gutarra
BM
Benjamin C. Moon
IA
Imran A. Rahman
CP
Colin Palmer
SL
Stephan Lautenschlager
AB
Alison J. Brimacombe
MJ
Michael J. Benton