sea_butterfly

 

Ethereal and remarkably beautiful, sea butterflies (L. helicina) are curious marine creatures that have evolved to have a unique—and somewhat bizarre—approach to swimming.

They use wing-like lobes called parapodia to “fly” vertically through the water column to reach nutrient-rich waters, escape predators, and find mates. Their snail-like shells create a weight imbalance that gives sea butterflies a distinctive “wobble” as they swim. They then throw a mucous web—several times the size of their bodies—that acts like a parachute, allowing them to float suspended until they release the web and sink freely back down.

It is this unique swimming behavior that first intrigued Rajat Mittal, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Whiting School, who has long had an interest in computational fluid mechanics and bioinspired engineering.

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