Changing shapes: How the trachea of the leatherback turtle responds during deep diving

Abstract

This research is primarily an engineering project. It focuses on analysing the behaviour of structural materials and identifying the properties of materials that govern the behaviour. The topic arose out of a need to classify how the trachea of the leatherback turtle (scientific classification: Dermochelys coriacea) responds to the extreme water loadings it is subjected to during deep diving (>300 metres). In the following sections a detailed background and overview of the work undertaken to date is presented. The work is an inter-disciplinary project and is essentially a zoologically applied model based on engineering principles. For reference, a graphical representation of the trachea and breathing system is provided in Figure 1. For a more detailed description of both the trachea and deep diving the reader is referred to the article published by the author in Volume I of the Boolean, the URL link for which is http://publish.ucc.ie/boolean/2010/00/MurphyC/27/en. Every material has ...