Meeting Abstract
Remoras are fishes well known for their ability to stick to other marine organisms, but the mechanics of their adhesion is not well-understood. Attachment of a remora to a surface is a rapid action often concealed by the adhesive disc coming into contact with the host surface. We recorded video of remoras attaching, detaching, repositioning, and sliding on a clear surface and used Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM) to amplify motion of the disc that was not visible otherwise. EVM analyzes color variation over time in a video sequence and resolves a frequency of amplification that matches the frequency of variation. We found that the four different behaviors were characterized by distinct lamellar motion patterns and regionalization of disc action. Regionalization of the disc motion is likely important to maximize water expulsion during attachment and to permit repositioning of the disc without fully detaching.
