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Swimming in Crustacea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Robert R. Hessler
Robert R. Hessler
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093, U.S.A.
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Abstract

An analysis of swimming in living crustaceans is presented in order to elucidate the range of ways this function has been achieved, and to reveal the principles which constrain it. The study focuses on Gnathophausia ingens, a primitive, bathypelagic malacostracan that swims with thoracic exopods and pleopods. These structures consist of a muscular peduncle and one or two flagella that are fringed with setulate setae. The basic motion is rowing with the limb and setal fan extended on the power stroke and flexed on recovery.

A survey of other crustaceans shows that rowing with this type of swimming structure dominates throughout, although paddles often replace the flagella. Particularly pervasive is the large relative area of setae, whose effectiveness must stem from the ability to extend and flex passively and from the high drag generated on the power stroke by the setules at low Reynolds numbers.

A review of reconstructions of Palaeozoic trilobites and marrellomorphs reveals the likelihood that if swimming was the function of the exites, they operated inefficiently or were employed in other methods as well. Sculling and drag reduction on the recovery stroke through feathering rather than flexion are possible alternatives. The more common occurrence of paddle-like limb shafts and blade-like marginal structures in other Palaeozoic arthropods is also noted.

Keywords

functional morphologyGnathophausiaMysidaceaPalaeozoic arthropodsskeletomusculature.
Type
Living forms and their bearing on the interpretation of fossils
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 76 , Issue 2-3: Fossil Anthropods as Living Animals , 1985 , pp. 115 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1985

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