How does a kingfisher keep away from concussions whereas diving? It might be of their genes

There are a lot of totally different species of kingfishers, and people who eat fish hunt by repeatedly diving head first into the water once they spot tasty prey with out sustaining mind accidents reminiscent of concussions. It seems that the diving kingfisher has a number of modified genes linked to weight loss plan and mind construction, in response to A New paper It was printed within the journal Communications Biology – significantly mutations in genes related to tau proteins that assist stabilize the construction of nerve cells, though they are often dangerous if an excessive amount of builds up.

“I realized loads about tau proteins once I was the concussion supervisor for my son’s hockey group.” said co-author Shannon Hackett, affiliate curator of birds on the Area Museum. “I started to marvel, why do not kingfishers die as a result of their brains flip to mush? There should be one thing they do this protects them from the unfavourable results of repeatedly touchdown on their heads on the floor of the water.

This is not the primary time scientists have considered this query, not only for kingfishers, however for different birds like them. booby And woodpeckers. For instance, physicists at Virginia Tech Gannet studied diving Again in 2014 (publishing their findings In 2016), which folds its wings again whereas diving, and strikes the water with its complete physique to grab prey underwater. From a physics standpoint, we’re speaking about an elastic physique hitting the floor of the water at speeds of as much as 55 miles per hour. The strain generated by the transition from the air medium to the denser water medium exerts an unlimited drive on the fowl’s physique, with an impact much like hurricanes hitting the water. Nonetheless, regardless of the stress positioned on their our bodies, gannets (reminiscent of kingfishers) carry out this feat again and again with out damage, particularly concussions.

So Sunny Jung and his team He plucked a deceased gannet from the Smithsonian Establishment’s Pure Historical past Museum and froze it, then repeatedly dropped the fowl into water tanks whereas capturing the method on high-speed cameras. (The disassembled physique was too versatile for use in experiments.) Additionally they made 3D-printed fashions of gannets primarily based on CT scans of their specimens and repeated the experiments, enabling them to vary totally different properties.

They discovered that the second stage of the diving trajectory was the hazard zone for the diving fowl – when the top is totally submerged within the water however the physique remains to be within the air – as a result of it produces a really robust compressive drive on the neck. Gannets have very lengthy necks (half their physique size), which might simply bend if the birds dive quicker than a sure pace; The gannet has found the proper spot for security. They get additional safety from the pointed form of their beaks, which reduces the drive on the physique.