But as soon as the cephalophoils were tilted up or down, the force came into action quickly, enabling rapid ascent or descent. This helps explain why hammerheads are “more of an exercise than a typical shark,” says Dr. Parsons, who thinks the skill could help pull food from the ocean floor.
The researchers also measured how much the production of cephalophils stretched. Wing. The winged shark with the largest hammer typically works with “20 to 40 times the pull,” Parsons said.
Such a head, he added, sounds like a “pain in the butt”, although the benefits it offers should outweigh the costs.
Marianne Port, a biologist at the University of Florida Atlantic, said that while not involved in the research, Mariana Port, a biologist at the University of Florida Atlantic, said the analysis of many species is “real pressure ahead” for hammerhead hydrodynamics. “We can start studying the diversity between them.”
But, she added, “calculation models have some limitations.” In the real world, sharks swim with their whole bodies, constantly changing sea conditions. When you try to recreate such things in the mounds, and focus on one part of the body at a time, she said, “Things get really muddy.” (Indeed, in a similar study published in 2018, Dr. P. Porter found that hammerheads produce overall erection.)
“The hammer is on all corners of the attack, which produces a lot of strain,” Dr. Parsons replied. “But nowhere else on the shark is it possible to regain some of that lost momentum through properly arranged fins and structures.”
He said he hopes other researchers will continue to investigate the issue: “The best research questions are the ones that generate 10 more.”
