... of the mesogleal bell powers the refilling stage, during which water is sucked back into the subumbrellar cavity. The mesoglea is a mucopolysaccharide gel reinforced with radially oriented fibres made primarily of a protein homologous to mammalian fibrillin. Most of the energy required to power the refill stroke...

... static structural stiffness of the bell was 150 N m −2 . Visualization procedures that showed the natural changes in the geometry of the deformation of the bell were used to calculate the static modulus of elasticity of the mesoglea, and gave a modulus of 400 N m −2 . Dynamic measurements on isolated...