{"id":724,"date":"2011-04-19T07:27:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T07:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=724"},"modified":"2011-04-19T08:38:40","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T08:38:40","slug":"how-can-scincus-scincus-swim-through-the-desert-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=724","title":{"rendered":"How can Scincus Scincus &#8220;swim&#8221; through the desert sand?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/junq.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/800px-Apothekerskink01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-727\" title=\"800px-Apothekerskink01\" src=\"http:\/\/junq.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/800px-Apothekerskink01-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"http:\/\/junq.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/800px-Apothekerskink01-300x213.jpg 300w, http:\/\/junq.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/800px-Apothekerskink01.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Scincus scincus<\/em> is a type of skink native to the North African deserts. It carries the colloquial name &#8220;sandfish&#8221; because it is able to move through the sand as if it was swimming. Biomechanists have recently gained new insight into the skink&#8217;s locomotion considering approaches from mathematics, physics, and engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Describing the movement through granular material is a demanding task since it can behave as a liquid and as a solid. The transition from liquid to solid can, for example, be described by the so called <em>resistive force theory<\/em> (RFT). RFT accounts for the fact that, when an object is submerged into the granular material, frictional drag &#8211; as opposed to viscosity &#8211; is often the dominant force.<\/p>\n<p>Further insights can be gained by building a biomimetic sand-swimming robot. Biomechanist R. D. Maladen and co-workers, for example, used a robot consisting of 15 segments to examine their theoretical predictions of the lizard&#8217;s locomotion.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v472\/n7342\/full\/472177a.html\">S. B. Croft, A. B. Summers, &#8220;Swimming in the Sahara&#8221;, Nature, Volume: 472, Pages: 177\u2013178<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"article-title-1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/325\/5938\/314\">R. D. Maladen<em> et al.<\/em>, &#8220;Undulatory Swimming in Sand: Subsurface Locomotion of the Sandfish Lizard&#8221;, Science, Volume: 325, Pages: 314-318<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Datei:Apothekerskink01.jpg&amp;filetimestamp=20051218205419\">Picture <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Leonie Mueck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scincus scincus is a type of skink native to the North African deserts. It carries the colloquial name &#8220;sandfish&#8221; because it is able to move through the sand as if it was swimming. Biomechanists have recently gained new insight into the skink&#8217;s locomotion considering approaches from mathematics, physics, and engineering. Describing the movement through granular&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=724\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How can Scincus Scincus &#8220;swim&#8221; through the desert sand?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/junq.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}