ArticlePLoS biology2015
Convergent evolution of mechanically optimal locomotion in aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates.
Article in PLoS biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Composite B-spline regularized delta functions for the immersed boundary method: Divergence-free interpolation and gradient-preserving force spreading.Journal of computational physics · 2026Article
- LOCAL DIVERGENCE-FREE IMMERSED FINITE ELEMENT-DIFFERENCE METHOD USING COMPOSITE B-SPLINES.Advances in computational science and engineering · 2025Article
- Benchmarking the Immersed Boundary Method for Viscoelastic Flows.Journal of computational physics · 2024Article
- Identification of the trade-off between speed and efficiency in undulatory swimming using a bio-inspired robot.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- On the Lagrangian-Eulerian Coupling in the Immersed Finite Element/Difference Method.Journal of computational physics · 2022Article
- Complementary feedback control enables effective gaze stabilization in animals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- An Immersed Interface Method for Discrete Surfaces.Journal of computational physics · 2020Article
- Immersed Methods for Fluid-Structure Interaction.Annual review of fluid mechanics · 2020Article
- Running in circles in phylomorphospace: host environment constrains morphological diversification in parasitic wasps.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Article
- Replaying the tape of life in the twenty-first century.Interface focus · 2015Review
- Convergence on an optimal way to swim.PLoS biology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Examples of animals evolving similar traits despite the absence of that trait in the last common ancestor, such as the wing and camera-type lens eye in vertebrates and invertebrates, are called cases of convergent evolution. Instances of convergent evolution of locomotory patterns that quantitatively agree with the mechanically optimal solution are very rare. Here, we show that, with respect to a very diverse group of aquatic animals, a mechanically optimal method of swimming with elongated fins has evolved independently at least eight times in both vertebrate and invertebrate swimmers across three different phyla. Specifically, if we take the length of an undulation along an animal's fin during swimming and divide it by the mean amplitude of undulations along the fin length, the result is consistently around twenty. We call this value the optimal specific wavelength (OSW). We show that the OSW maximizes the force generated by the body, which also maximizes swimming speed. We hypothesize a mechanical basis for this optimality and suggest reasons for its repeated emergence through evolution.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.