On the unusual swimming gaits of sea-slugs.

Nudibranches (sea-slugs) are a family of soft-bodied marine invertebrates. They typically crawl on the sea-floor, but some species (eg. Hexabranchus sanguineus ``Spanish dancer") are capable of free swimming. They possess a peculiar swimming gait, which we will argue comes from constraints on their geometry. I will present an analysis of free swimming sea-slugs that touches upon interesting questions in the mechanics of non-Euclidean thin sheets as well as on the interaction of such sheets with a fluid environment. I will also discuss potential applications our analysis to soft robots.