Sharks' remarkable skin boosts swimming

Herald Globe (IANS) Friday 10th February, 2012

Swimming comes effortlessly to sharks, thanks to their streamlined shapes and coating of razor sharp tooth-like scales, called denticles. Experiments with the intact shark skins accelerated swimming by nearly 13 percent as compared to "ordinary" skin, says a study.

"All of the shark skin studies were done on flat shark skin mimics that were held straight and immovable," said George Lauder from Harvard University.

He explains that the fish have long inspired human engineers, but more recently attention has focused on how the fish's remarkable skin boosts swimming, The Journal of Experimental Biology reported.

Lauder and master's student Johannes Oeffner discovered that shark skin actually generates thrust to give the fish an additional boost, according to a university statement.