Event Title

The Effects of a Fish’s Fins in a Terrestrial Jump

Start Date

15-4-2021 3:30 PM

End Date

15-4-2021 4:30 PM

Student's Major

Biological Sciences

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Michael Minicozzi

Mentor's Department

Biological Sciences

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Description

Fishes are generally considered to be fully aquatic but some voluntarily strand themselves on land when conditions are not ideal. On land, these fish move around using a tail-flip jump without any apparent morphological specialization for terrestrial locomotion. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are an excellent model to investigate the anatomical factors that determine tail-flip jumping performance because many varieties exist in the pet trade and have the ability to move around on land with a tail-flip jump. In this experiment, I investigated if jumping ability was different in the wildtype zebrafish and the longfin zebrafish based on the caudal fin ray characteristics. I hypothesized that the longfin zebrafish will jump a shorter distance and take off from the ground at a higher angle than the wildtype zebrafish because the longer fin rays will hinder jumping performance. Individuals of each species were placed in a tabletop arena composed of a hard, rough surface and a wet substrate. Each fish was jumped in this arena and the best jump from each individual was used for kinematic analysis. Data from these jumps were acquired from a high-speed camera situated directly across the arena, to measure kinematics, and an overhead non-high-speed camera, to measure jump distance. Once the jump data was collected, each fish was euthanized, cleared and double stained for bone and cartilage to measure thickness, length, and distance between the fin rays of the caudal fin. Interestingly, despite differences in fins and fin ray anatomy, there were no differences in any of the jumping performance measures considered here. This implies that the differences in the anatomy of the two species are not great enough to alter the jumping performance from one another.

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Apr 15th, 3:30 PM Apr 15th, 4:30 PM

The Effects of a Fish’s Fins in a Terrestrial Jump

Fishes are generally considered to be fully aquatic but some voluntarily strand themselves on land when conditions are not ideal. On land, these fish move around using a tail-flip jump without any apparent morphological specialization for terrestrial locomotion. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are an excellent model to investigate the anatomical factors that determine tail-flip jumping performance because many varieties exist in the pet trade and have the ability to move around on land with a tail-flip jump. In this experiment, I investigated if jumping ability was different in the wildtype zebrafish and the longfin zebrafish based on the caudal fin ray characteristics. I hypothesized that the longfin zebrafish will jump a shorter distance and take off from the ground at a higher angle than the wildtype zebrafish because the longer fin rays will hinder jumping performance. Individuals of each species were placed in a tabletop arena composed of a hard, rough surface and a wet substrate. Each fish was jumped in this arena and the best jump from each individual was used for kinematic analysis. Data from these jumps were acquired from a high-speed camera situated directly across the arena, to measure kinematics, and an overhead non-high-speed camera, to measure jump distance. Once the jump data was collected, each fish was euthanized, cleared and double stained for bone and cartilage to measure thickness, length, and distance between the fin rays of the caudal fin. Interestingly, despite differences in fins and fin ray anatomy, there were no differences in any of the jumping performance measures considered here. This implies that the differences in the anatomy of the two species are not great enough to alter the jumping performance from one another.