‘Coughing’ Scallops Caught on Tape
by Kelly Servick
Ahem: A cough cannot be hidden—and when scallops cough, scientists should listen. A scallop “coughs” to expel feces and water from its central cavity; the friction between the mollusk’s two valves makes a sharp crack, followed by a drawn-out puffing noise as the valves quickly close. Now, a team of biologists and acoustics experts says those sounds can serve as an early warning system for worsening water quality.
Because the sonically striking coughs are distinct from the choruses of other marine noisemakers such as shrimp and sea urchins, the researchers found that, by using submersible acoustic sensors called hydrophones,they could record the scallops’ outbursts from up to 10 meters away, they reported this week in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology…
(read more and hear the scallops: Science NOW)
(photo: L. Di Iorio et al., Jembe, 432-433 (30 November 2012))
