Investigating the locomotion of the sandfish in desert sand using NMR-imaging

The sandfish (Scincus scincus) is a lizard having the remarkable ability to move through desert sand for significant distances. It is well adapted to living in loose sand by virtue of a combination of morphological and behavioural specializations. We investigated the bodyform of the sandfish using 3...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2008-10, Vol.3 (10), p.e3309-e3309
Main Authors: Baumgartner, Werner, Fidler, Florian, Weth, Agnes, Habbecke, Martin, Jakob, Peter, Butenweg, Christoph, Böhme, Wolfgang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biophysics/Experimental Biophysical Methods
Biophysics/Theory and Simulation
Body length
Deserts
Diagnostic imaging
Environment
Evolutionary Biology/Animal Behavior
Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary Ecology
Granular materials
Investigations
Lacertilia
Limbs
Liolaemus
Lizards - physiology
Locomotion
Magnetic resonance
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Models, Biological
Morphology
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Phylogenetics
Physics
Reptilia
Sand
Sandfish
Silicon Dioxide - chemistry
Squamata
Swimming
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Summary:The sandfish (Scincus scincus) is a lizard having the remarkable ability to move through desert sand for significant distances. It is well adapted to living in loose sand by virtue of a combination of morphological and behavioural specializations. We investigated the bodyform of the sandfish using 3D-laserscanning and explored its locomotion in loose desert sand using fast nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. The sandfish exhibits an in-plane meandering motion with a frequency of about 3 Hz and an amplitude of about half its body length accompanied by swimming-like (or trotting) movements of its limbs. No torsion of the body was observed, a movement required for a digging-behaviour. Simple calculations based on the Janssen model for granular material related to our findings on bodyform and locomotor behaviour render a local decompaction of the sand surrounding the moving sandfish very likely. Thus the sand locally behaves as a viscous fluid and not as a solid material. In this fluidised sand the sandfish is able to "swim" using its limbs.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0003309