Dolphin Tail Fluke Flexibility
Dolphin pectoral fins contain remnants of bones like those in the human hand, so how come their tail doesn’t contain remnants of bones like those in the human foot?
Through high definition photography, I've captured how incredibly flexible tail flukes are. A lovely photographic sequence, click through the images quickly to see just how flexible a dolphins tail really is.
In action, tail flukes resemble a birds wings in flight maintaining a high degree of flexibility under extreme stresses. When a dolphin exerts 200 - 400 pounds of peak force, flukes must be flexible enough to take advantage of, and handle these stresses. If tail flukes were to contain bones, this would be a limiting factor in that bones retard flexibility, and complicate the physics of dolphin swimming.
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