Disklike Structures Adhere to Smooth Surfaces

Biological Strategy

Spix's disk-winged bat

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Image: Alan Wolf / Flickr / Free non-commercial use

Attach Temporarily

Living systems must sometimes, temporarily, stay in one place, climb or otherwise move around, or hold things together. This entails attaching temporarily with the ability to release, which minimizes energy and material use. Some living systems repeatedly attach, detach, and reattach for an extended time, such as over their lifetimes. Despite being temporary, these attachments must withstand physical and other forces until they have achieved their purpose. Therefore, living systems have adapted attachment mechanisms optimized for the amount of time or number of times they must be used. An example is the gecko, which climbs walls by attaching its toes for less than a second. Other examples include insects that attach their eggs to a leaf until they hatch, and insects whose wings temporarily attach during flight but separate after landing.

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Mammals

Class Mammalia (“breast”): Bats, cats, whales, horses, humans

Mammals make up less than 1% of all animals on earth, but they include some of the most well-known species. We know first-hand some of the characteristics that make mammals unique, like having hair, being able to sweat, and producing milk through mammary glands. Another critical shared feature is a set of highly-specialized teeth. Unlike sharks or alligators, for example, whose teeth are generally all the same size and shape, mammals have differently shaped teeth in different areas of the jaws to target specific foods or foraging strategies.

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Disklike structures on the wrists and ankles of Spix's disk-winged bat adhere to smooth leaves using suction adhesion.

“Several of the smallest bats, for instance, use [suction adhesion] to cling to smooth leaves, with disklike structures on wrists and ankles. In the 3.5-gram Thyroptera tricolor of Central America, suction provides the main mechanism; these bats’ minimal reliance on other schemes such as the two kinds of wet adhesion that follow [Stefan and capillary] limits their ability to cling to anything but smooth surfaces (Riskin and Fenton 2001).” (Vogel 2003:427)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World, Second Edition

17/06/2013 | Steven Vogel

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Reference

Journal article

Sticking ability in Spix's disk-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor (Microchiroptera: Thyropteridae)

Can. J. Zool. | 24/04/2011 | Daniel K Riskin, M Brock Fenton

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