Animals on the Move
A) It looked like a scene from Jaws but without the dramatic music. A huge shark was slowly swimming through the water, its tail swinging back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. Suddenly sensitive nerve ending in the sharks skin picked up vibrations of a struggling fish. The shark was immediately transformed into a deadly, efficient machine of death. With muscles taut, the shark knifed through the water at a rapid speed. In a flash the shark caught its victim, a large fish, in its powerful jaws. Then, jerking its head back and forth, the shark tore huge chunks of flesh from its victim and swallowed them. Soon the action was over.
Moving to Survive
B) In pursuing its prey, the shark demonstrated in a dramatic way the important role of movement, or locomotion, in animals.Like the shark, most animals use movement to find food.They also use locomotion to escape enemies, find a mate, and explore new territories. The methods of locomotion include crawling, hopping, slithering, flying, swimming, or walking.Humans have the added advantage of using their various inventions to move about in just about any kind of environment. Automobiles, rockets, and submarines transport humans from deep oceans to as far away as the moon.However, for other animals movement came about naturally through millions of years of evolution. One of the most successful examples of animal locomotion is that of the shark. Its ability to quickly zero in on its prey has always impressed scientists. But it took a detailed study by Duke University marine biologists S. A. Wainwright, F. Vosburgh, and J. H. Hebrank to find out how the sharks did it. In their study the scientists observed sharks swimming in a tank at Marine land in Saint Augustine, Fla. Movies were taken of the sharks movements and analyzed. Studies were also made of shark skin and muscle.
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