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Updated: Dec 29, 2025

How to Build a Vacuum Spring-transport Package for Spinning Rotor Gauges
Published on: April 7, 2016
Medium compensation in a spring-actuated system
Kathryn D Feller1, Gregory P Sutton2, Paloma T Gonzalez-Bellido3
1Department of Physiology Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EG, UK kate.feller@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Mantis shrimp strikes are one of the fastest animal movements, despite their occurrence in a water medium with viscous drag. Since the strike is produced by a latch-mediated spring-actuated system and not directly driven by muscle action, we predicted that strikes performed in air would be faster than underwater as a result of reduction in the medium's drag. Using high-speed video analysis of stereotyped strikes elicited from Squilla mantis, we found the exact opposite: strikes are much slower and less powerful in air than in water. S. mantis strikes in air have a similar mass and performance to latch-mediated spring-actuated jumps in locusts, suggesting a potential threshold for the energetics of a 1-2 g limb rotating in air. Drag forces induced by the media may be a key feature in the evolution of mantis shrimp strikes and provide a potential target for probing the braking system of these extremely fast movements.
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