It turned out what swordfish can develop huge speed.
Distant relatives of snappers, swordfish in length and sometimes reach 4.5 m and weigh over 500 kg, they are able to recruit up to 100 km/h, breaking the sea water and hard sharp sword. Xiphias gladius is one of the fastest swimmers on Earth, and a group of biologists from Germany from the Netherlands recently revealed one of the secrets of their speed. As the authors report in an article published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, it’s just… fat.
Ben Szabo (Szabo Ben) from the University of Groningen and his team decided to investigate the anatomy of the skull swordfish using tomography and electron microscopy. The main interest of the scientists was attracted by weak, poorly mineralized bone at the base of the sword. Examining these plots closely, scientists have discovered a huge amount of iron in large quantities producing fatty substances.
From them to the skin surface, the fish are tubules that allow her profusely “sweating” that fat grease in the head region, noticeably lightening the slide in the aquatic environment. According to estimates Szabo and his colleagues, it reduces friction by more than 20%, making a great contribution to the League in terms of speed, which reach the swordfish.
