Underwater organisms have things to teach us about how to keep our grip in extreme conditions.
Austin Garner, assistant professor of integrative animal biology at Syracuse University, explores how.
Austin M. Garner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and BioInspired Institute at Syracuse University. His research focuses on how animals interface with their environment with a particular focus on how animals attach to surfaces in variable conditions. He employs an interdisciplinary research approach that combines expertise in both life and physical sciences. Garner’s research currently focuses on attachment and locomotion of lizards (geckos and anoles), sea urchins, and marine sculpins. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Garner was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Villanova University from 2021-2022. Garner earned a Ph.D. in Integrated Bioscience in 2021 and a B.S. in Biology (magna cum laude) in 2016, both from the University of Akron.
Fishy Friction through Microscopic Modification
Organisms of the rocky intertidal zone are often subjected to extreme environmental conditions. Crashing waves, for example, expose intertidal organisms to huge forces, threatening to dislodge bottom-dwelling, benthic organisms from surfaces they are moving or resting on. As such, many mobile benthic organisms of the rocky intertidal zone have evolved discrete attachment systems like suction cups or adhesive secreting discs to reversibly attach to surfaces. However, not all marine intertidal organisms use such systems to stay put in these challenging conditions.
Sculpins are a group of fishes closely related to sea robins, lionfishes, stonefishes, and rockfishes. Most species of sculpin are benthic, using the claw-like tips of their pectoral fins to grip rocks and other substrates. Most research has focused on how the large-scale aspects of their pectoral fins allow sculpins to live this benthic lifestyle under extreme flow.
Dr. Emily Kane, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and her group used a scanning electron microscope to visualize the surface of sculpin fin rays and found that they were covered in microscopic, fibrillar projections. Dr. Kane noticed the resemblance of these new structures to those that geckos use to attach to surfaces and reached out to begin a new collaboration between our groups. Through rigorous microscopic study of the fin ray surfaces of four species of sculpin, we not only described the morphology of these fibrillar projections for the first time but also found that intertidal species have different arrangements of these structures. The similarity of these structures to those found in the discrete attachment systems of other organisms and the differences we observed between sculpin species suggest that these structures may function to increase friction or adhesion with underwater surfaces.
Read More:
[Royal Society Publishing] – Epidermal microstructures on the paired fins of marine sculpins suggest new functional hypotheses supporting benthic station-holding
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