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Hydrodynamic reception
Ability of an organism to sense water movements / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In animal physiology, hydrodynamic reception refers to the ability of some animals to sense water movements generated by biotic (conspecifics, predators, or prey) or abiotic sources. This form of mechanoreception is useful for orientation, hunting, predator avoidance, and schooling.[1][2] Frequent encounters with conditions of low visibility can prevent vision from being a reliable information source for navigation and sensing objects or organisms in the environment. Sensing water movements is one resolution to this problem.[3]
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This sense is common in aquatic animals, the most cited example being the lateral line system, the array of hydrodynamic receptors found in fish and aquatic amphibians.[4] Arthropods (including crayfish and lobsters) and some mammals (including pinnipeds and manatees) can use sensory hairs to detect water movements. Systems that detect hydrodynamic stimuli are also used for sensing other stimuli. For example, sensory hairs are also used for the tactile sense, detecting objects and organisms up close rather than via water disturbances from afar.[5] Relative to other sensory systems, our knowledge of hydrodynamic sensing is rather limited.[6] This could be because humans do not have hydrodynamic receptors, which makes it difficult for us to understand the importance of such a system. Generating and measuring a complex hydrodynamic stimulus can also be difficult.