COG10 - The Gastropodic Acochlidium Traditional Cache

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Juicepig: Gone!

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Hidden : 6/23/2014
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

The first evidence of land slugs and snails started 530 million years ago; about 40 million years before fish began coming out of the seas to eat them. The original breathing organ of snails is the comb gill (Ctenidium). As this type of gill is only able to acquire oxygen from water, all terrestrial and numerous fresh water snail species have reduced it. Oxygen from dry air now had to be acquired directly trough the tissues of the pallial cavity wall. Among the pulmonate gastropods (Pulmonata) a network of blood vessels there makes an efficient means of oxygen acquisition. The slime that snails and slugs produce also acts as protection against dehydration, acting as a water repellant, and trapping the moisture beneath it.

For this reason, chemical companies such as 3M spend big money studying the various types of snail and slug lubricant. It is known that snails and slugs move by propagating their body in a series of muscular wave motions to advance from their tail to their head, but the importance of their mucus in this process was not known, until recently. American scientists found that the secreted fluid's properties are not essential for propulsion. "Without a doubt, it could have other uses, such as climbing walls, moving upside down, or preserving moisture in the body when on a dry surface, but if we want to construct a robot that emulates a snail, the latter could move over fluid mucus with ordinary properties" pointed out Professor Rodríguez, Professor at the UC3M Department of Thermal and Fluids Engineering , who has recently published an article on this matter, together with his colleagues from the North American universities, in the scientific review, Journal of Experimental Biology.



To carry out this study, the researchers have characterized the propagation of these muscular waves which occur along the body of gastropods. For this purpose, they place the snails and slugs so that they move on transparent surfaces, illuminating their undersides in different ways so as to record images through digital cameras, subsequently analyzing this data by computer. "The ways to illuminate the body vary depending on what is being measured," stated María Vázquez, research fellow from the UC3M Fluid Mechanics Group where she has collaborated in experiments carried out in Spain and in the US. "For example," she explained further, "to measure the speed of the wave, we placed a light on the underneath part of the snail, while to measure the vertical deformation of the body we used a low power flat laser (so as not to harm the animal) projected at a given angle." Together, all of these measures have allowed the 3D reconstruction of the snail's underside during propulsion.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Haqre gur Zlfgrevbhf Juvgr Obk

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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