Biology subjects

te Lindert, J. S.

Publications and source records attributed to te Lindert, J. S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Attachment performance of cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) suckers depends on the interaction between papillae and substrate topography

Cephalopods are versatile predators, with many species using suckers to capture prey. These suckers attach to substrates ranging from the stiff, rough exoskeletons of crustaceans to the soft, smooth tissues of other cephalopods. Despite generating higher suction pressures than octopuses, less attention has been given to the biomechanics of cuttlefish suckers. Cuttlefish suckers exhibit a stiff, rough papillated rim that acts as a seal. We hypothesise that these papillae have evolved to attach to rough substrates matching their rugosity to expel water at the contact interface. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the passive attachment performance of common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) suckers ex vivo on a variety of artificial substrates that differed in stiffness and roughness. We found that sucker attachment forces varied significantly with substrate roughness, with the highest forces occurring on roughnesses that coincided with the average sucker papillae height (root-mean-square [~] 6.84 {micro}m). Additionally, attachment forces were higher on stiffer substrates. We developed a mathematical model for predicting leakage across the sucker rim that qualitatively agrees with our experimental results. These findings indicate that the papillae may aid attachment performance, particularly to natural prey, and could inform the design and development of versatile bioinspired suction cups.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2024

Flight performance, activity and behaviour of breeding pied flycatchers in the wild, revealed with accelerometers and machine learning

Flight behaviours have been extensively studied from different angles such as their kinematics, aerodynamics and more general their migration pattern. Nevertheless, much is still unknown about the daily flight activity of birds, in terms of their performance, behaviour and the potential differences between males and females. The recent development of miniaturized accelerometers allows us a glimpse into the daily life of a songbird. Here, we tagged 26 pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) with accelerometers and analysed using machine learning approaches their flight performance, activity and behaviour during their chick rearing period. We found that during two hours of foraging chick-rearing pied flycatchers were flying 13.7% of the time. Almost all flights (>99%) were short flights lasting less than 10s. Flight activity changed throughout the day and was highest in the morning and lowest in the early afternoon. Male pied flycatcher had lower wing loading than females, and peak flight accelerations were inversely correlated with wing loading. Despite this, we found no significant differences in flight activity and performance between sexes. This suggests that males possess a higher potential flight performance, which they not fully utilized during foraging flights. Our results thus suggest that male and female pied flycatcher invest equally in parental care, but that this comes at a reduced cost by the male, due to their higher flight performance potential.

animal behavior and cognition↗