Dissertation Research: Evolution of Hydrodynamics and Functional Morphology of Balistiform Locomotion

本研究将阐明一个不同的单系珊瑚鱼群：刺鱼和刺鱼（刺鱼总科）在功能形态和运动流体动力学方面的主要进化模式。在一般力学预测和两个适用于长鳍配对推进的理论水动力学模型的框架内，将收集和分析这些鱼的分类广泛样本的鳍形态、三维行程运动学和水动力学数据。目标包括：(1)评估广泛假设但未经检验的鳍形和运动剖面相关性的强度；(2)测试对于长而窄的鳍和深而坚硬的身体的游泳者提出的理论优势；(3)确定两种水动力模型中哪一种能更好地估计平均推力；(4)检验简单杠杆力学和肌肉结构的预测。这项研究首次在一个严谨的系统发育框架中考虑了水生运动的详细形式和运动学数据，将缩小传统的忽视共同祖先影响的功能研究与不承认生物力学和流体动力学原理和约束的进化研究之间的鸿沟。该研究将探索在水下推进技术中具有潜在应用前景的新型推力机制。

Westneat 9701345 This study will elucidate major evolutionary patterns in the functional morphology and hydrodynamics of locomotion in a diverse monophyletic group of reef fish: the triggerfishes and filefishes (Superfamily Balistoidea). Data on the fin morphology, 3-D stroke kinematics, and hydrodynamics of a taxonomically broad sample of these fish will be collected and analyzed within the framework of general mechanical predictions and tuo theoretical hydrodynamic models applicable to long-based paired fin propulsion. Objectives include: (1) assessing the strength of a widely assumed but untested correlation of fin shape and kinematic profile; (2) testing the theoretical advantages proposed for swimmers with long, narrow fins and deep, rigidly held bodies; (3) determining which of the two hydrodynamic models yields better estimates of mean thrust; and (4) examining predictions from simple lever mechanics and muscle architecture. The study, the first in aquatic locomotion to consider detailed form and kinematic data in a regorous phylogenetic framework, will narow the traditional gulf between functional studies that ignore the influence of common ancestry and evolutionary studies that fail to acknowledge biomechanical and hydrodynamic principles and contraints. The study will explore novel mechanisms of thrust with potential applications in underwater propulsion technology.