Lipids buoyancy

Phleger, C. F. (1998). Buoyancy in marine fishes Direct and indirect role of lipids. Am. 

De Vries, A.L. and Eastman, J.T. (1978). Lipid sacs as a buoyancy adaptation in an Antarctic fish. Nature, Lond. 271,352-353. 

Phleger, C.F. (1975). Bone lipids of Kona Coast reef fish skull buoyancy in the hawkfish, Cirrhites pinnulatus. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 52B, 101-104. 

Close modulation of the physical states of lipids is important in a variety of other contexts. Lipids play major roles as buoyancy-regulating devices in which temperature-induced alterations in lipid density play important functions in setting the overall buoyancy of the organism (e.g., the spermaceti organ of sperm whales see Clarke, 1979). Cuticular lipids function as important barriers to water movement in terrestrial arthropods (Gibbs, 1998 Hadley, 1981), and the chemical compositions and physical states of these lipids manifest temperature responses comparable in many ways to those observed for membrane lipids. 

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