Jet-assisted walking in lobsters
For my MSc, I studied lobster locomotion in Dr. Edwin DeMont's Comparative Biomechanics lab at St. Francis Xavier University . The American lobster (Homarus americanus) has a series of paddle-shaped appendages (the pleopods) on its abdomen that it uses to generate water currents, and I was interested in their hydrodynamics and locomotory function.
Using a quantitative flow visualization technique (particle image velocimetry, PIV) and a mechanical lobster model to characterize pleopod-generated flows and their forces, we found that the lobster’s beating pleopods are capable of producing a strong rearward jet that could assist walking in benthic habitats.
Lim, J.L. and DeMont, M.E. (2009). Kinematics, hydrodynamics and force production of pleopods suggest jet-assisted walking in the American lobster (Homarus americanus). J. Exp. Biol. 212, 2731-2745. (PDF)
Also see an article that BBC Earth News did on this work here!


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The ecomechanics of hagfish slime
The summer after receiving a BSc in Marine Biology at the University of British Columbia , I worked in the UBC Biomaterials lab with Dr. Doug Fudge and Dr. John Gosline on a project on the ecological function of hagfish slime.
We tested the hypothesis that the slime acts as a defence against gill-breathing predators, as the slime’s mixture of fibrous threads and mucins could become entangled in the gills and potentially suffocate a predator. Naturally, we built a “slime-vacuum” to test this (see below).
We found that hagfish slime is capable of clogging fish gills, increasing gill resistance and slowing the flow of water through them.
Lim, J., Fudge, D. S., Levy, N. and Gosline, J. M. (2006). Hagfish slime ecomechanics: testing the gill-clogging hypothesis. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 702-710. (PDF)
This and some of Doug's other hagfish work also got mentioned here, in the Annals of Improbable Research (issuers of the Ig Nobel Prizes)!
And in the children's book Secret of the Suffocating Slime Trap...and More!, part of the Animal Secrets Revealed! series by Ana María Rodríguez.


