Jellyfish Use Surprising Technique to Swim Through the Ocean

Jellyfish use a somewhat surprising technique to swim, and now researchers are learning a bit more about it. They've used new experiments to reveal the startling truth about how jellyfish and lampreys move efficiently through the water.

"It confounds our assumptions," said John Dabiri, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But our experiments show that jellyfish and lampreys actually suck water toward themselves to move forward instead of pushing against the water behind them as had been previously supposed."

Both lampreys and jellyfish long ago evolved into efficient swimmers. Each minimal pulsing or undulating movement helps them cover a significant distance. In this latest study, the researchers looked at these creatures in order to possibly use this same technique when creating human-made technologies.

About three years ago, one researchers began to suspect that scientists fundamentally misunderstood underwater proportion. In order to find out the truth, the scientists designed an experiment to explain the theoretical fluids around solid objects, such as swimming animals.

"The body undulations of the normal lampreys set them apart as much better swimmers than you and me," said Dabiri. "Human swimmers generate high pressure instead of suction. That's good enough to get you across the pool, but requires much more energy than the suction action of lampreys and jellyfish."

Jellyfish create low-pressure pockets on the inside edge of each undulating animal movement. These pockets are the dominant driver of propulsion by pulling water toward the animal to move it forward.

The findings reveal a bit more about how these animals move, which may help with future technologies.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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