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Rapid shell closure in the brachiopods Terebratulina retusa and Terebrataua transversa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Spafford C. Ackerly
Spafford C. Ackerly
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
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Extract

Rapid shell closure in articulate brachiopods, occurring by a twitch contraction of the the ‘quick’ adductor muscles, is a response to disturbance or to physiological requirements of the organism. The relative simplicity of the closing system permits a detailed analysis of the functional architecture of the mechanism and the underlying principles of skeleto-muscular organization, in terms of (1) basic kinematic properties of the system (speeds and times of closure), (2) hydrodynamic reactions resisting closure, and (3) considerations of muscle physiology and mechanics.

Analyses of shell closure in the brachiopods Terebratulina retusa from the Firth of Lorn, Scotland, and Terebratalia transversa from Puget Sound, USA, reveal (1) shell-closing times of the order of 50 to 70 ms, (2) closing velocities of the order of 3·5 radians s-1, from initial gapes of about 0·05 to 0·2 rad, and (3) muscle moment forces and hydrodynamic reactions with magnitudes of the order of 5 × 10-4 N m (5 g cm). Muscle tensions developed in the ‘quick’ adductor muscle are of the order of 105 N m2, and contraction velocities are of the order of one muscle length per second. Hydrodynamic reactions are a fundamental constraint on the closing mechanism, as determined by the concordance of actual closing events with predictions of a hydrodynamic model.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , August 1992 , pp. 579 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1992

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