MadSci Network: Zoology |
Interesting. I do not know of any study reporting on the synchronous movements of anemones. If the dance was not initiated by the jet of water or currents set up by the jet, then the animals may have been moving in resonance queued by turbulence from each other's movements. This phenomenon is not biological. Swinging pendulums if set close enough will eventually begin swinging in unison. Why? Because the pendulums create vibrations that are transmitted through the table (or whatever) that interfere ever so slightly with the periodicity of the others. As a result the energetically cheapest way of moving is to fall in synchrony with one another. This is why the pendulums of grandfather clocks arrayed along a wall in antique shops sway in unison. So too i suspect it is with the anemones.
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