@article{BaumgartnerFidlerWethetal.2008,
  author    = {Baumgartner, Werner and Fidler, Florian and Weth, Agnes and Habbecke, Martin and Jakob, Peter and Butenweg, Christoph and B{\"o}hme, Wolfgang},
  title     = {Investigating the locomotion of the sandfish in desert sand using NMR-Imaging},
  series = {PLOS ONE},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {PLOS ONE},
  number    = {10},
  publisher = {Plos},
  address   = {San Francisco, California, US},
  issn      = {1932-6203},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0003309},
  pages     = {e3309},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {The sandfish (Scincus scincus) is a lizard having the remarkable ability to move through desert sand for significant distances. It is well adapted to living in loose sand by virtue of a combination of morphological and behavioural specializations. We investigated the bodyform of the sandfish using 3D-laserscanning and explored its locomotion in loose desert sand using fast nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging. The sandfish exhibits an in-plane meandering motion with a frequency of about 3 Hz and an amplitude of about half its body length accompanied by swimming-like (or trotting) movements of its limbs. No torsion of the body was observed, a movement required for a digging-behaviour. Simple calculations based on the Janssen model for granular material related to our findings on bodyform and locomotor behaviour render a local decompaction of the sand surrounding the moving sandfish very likely. Thus the sand locally behaves as a viscous fluid and not as a solid material. In this fluidised sand the sandfish is able to "swim" using its limbs.},
  language  = {en}
}