The sandfish skink (Scincus scincus) spends much of its day below the desert surface, shimmying through the sand to escape predators, avoid overheating and sneak up on prey.
Daniel Goldman at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and his colleagues used high-speed X-ray imaging to scrutinize the skink's movements as it zipped through sand-grain-sized glass beads. They discovered that the sandfish does not use its limbs to push itself along, but instead tucks them against its body and undulates like a sine wave.
The team then modelled the thrust and drag involved in swimming through the grains. The model correctly predicted that a given frequency of body waves generates the same speed regardless of whether the grains are loose or packed.
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Biophysics: Skink or swim?. Nature 460, 438 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/460438a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/460438a
