MadSci Network: Zoology
Query:

Re: Do sea anemones move in synchrony with each other

Date: Wed Nov 17 20:10:45 1999
Posted By: Alexander M. Kerr, Grad student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
Area of science: Zoology
ID: 941670768.Zo
Message:

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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