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The anatomical basis of swimming in Whales.
Author(s) -
PARRY D. A.
Publication year - 1949
Publication title -
proceedings of the zoological society of london
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0370-2774
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1949.tb00866.x
Subject(s) - anatomy , movement (music) , rotation (mathematics) , physics , biology , geometry , mathematics , acoustics
S ummary .1 The swimming movement of whales involves a vertical oscillation of the tail and a simultaneous, independent, adjustment of the angle of the flukes. 2 The centres of rotation of the tail and flukes are determined by characteristics of the axial skeleton and associated ligaments. 3 The axial musculature is simplified to give power rather than versatility. The bulk of the epiaxial musculature is inserted into the tail by two series of long tendons and causes upward flexion; a special branch of this muscle is exclusively concerned with upward flexion of the flukes. The hypoaxial musculature is incompletely divided into two parts, one flexing the tail downwards and one flexing the flukes downwards. 4 No support is given by the anatomy to the sculling theory or the circularly polarized wave theory of the swimming movement.