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Shark Anatomy
Hydrodynamics and Performance
A famous aircraft-builder was fond of saying that
"a good plane is a plane that is nice to look at", alluding to
the parallel between aerodynamic performance and aestheticism. In
the same way we could say that a good marine predator is an animal with
harmonious structure. Any diver who has seen a shark at least once
in his or her life has been struck by the purity of its lines and the
suppleness of its movements, which make it unquestionably the best endowed
of fish for slow or rapid swimming, acceleration or pursuit, cruising or
hunting. Here again the shark's adaptation to its environment is flawless,
in the streamlining of its body, the size and the positioning of its fins,
and the shape and proportion of its tail.
If the basic principles of aerodynamism and
hydrodynamism are the same, water is nevertheless eight hundred times
denser than air, and the shark's propulsion necessitates a locomotive
power which is much more considerable in equivalent weight than that of a
bird of prey in the air.
Pages in this section are as follows:
An Organism for Hydrodynamism
A Predator with Two Gears
Variations and Adaptations |
