Since it's a really interesting subject I wanted to try to develop a little more regarding the movements of the jellyfish, and the new research that has been done on the subject.
As stated in the previous post the new findings done by scientists at Stanford University suggests that the jellyfish pulls itself forward rather than - as one has believed before - pushes its way through the water. This "pulling" is done through the creation of a region of low pressure in the water in front of the jellyfish.
The scientists at Stanford have for the first time measured the pressure that swimming animals exercise on the surrounding water, and according to them this has resulted in a view on efficient swimming much different from the conventional one. They hope that this shift of focus - from creating high pressure for propulsion rather than low pressure - will make large difference when developing more effective submarines.
Low pressure is most commonly created through a rotation of the body, in order to create swirling vortexes with low-pressure areas at their center (and as far as I understand this is exactly what the jellyfish does). Apparently it also requires less energy to create this kind of propulsion rather than the alternative involving high pressure.
The Stanford team believe that this discovery, showing that both jellyfish and lamprey (a jaw-lacking, worm-like fish) use this low-pressure method might change our previous assumption that generating high pressure is essential in order to achieve effective mobility.
Definitely a highly interesting finding!
Source: Stanford News Service. (2015). Stanford engineers help discover the surprising trick jellyfish use to swim. Retrieved 2018-02-01 from https://news.stanford.edu/pr/2015/pr-propulsion-lamprey-trick-110315.html
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