Alligators - Beyond peak buoyancy

[reefduffer]

Just cool. It turns out alligators use special muscles to control not just lung volume, but lung shape and position within their body. So they control not just buoyancy, but trim - both pitch and roll. It appears to be involved in the famous death roll, as well as diving maneuvers.

Gator Aids: Gators squish lungs around to dive and roll: Science News Online, March 15, 2008

If you think you've got good buoyancy control - we're like the blind to a sighted person compared to what an alligator does.

 

[Coll]

Wow! What a cool article. Although I was a bit thrown off by when the researchers "duct taped lead shot" to the animals tails! Seems like a pretty amusing haphazard method.