A Dolphin's Tale From: Scientific American - 03/2013 - page 78 By: Emily Anthes A bottlenose named Winter lost her tail to a crab trap. So scientists built her a new one. A bottlenose dolphin named Winter lost her tail after getting tangled up in a crab trap. She was forced to swim from side to side like a fish, which warped her spine. Two prosthetists decided to build Winter a whole new tail, something that had never been done before. In the process, they invented a new kind of gel. Today Winter's false tail is helping to straighten her spine, and "dolphin gel" cushioning has proved useful for human athletes who have lost limbs. Read the entire article at: (Institutional access required) http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v308/n3/full/scientificamerican0313-78.html Links: Winter's Tale: A Dolphin in Distress http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/reports/winter/ An Amazing Menagerie of Animal Prostheses (with videos 1:30, 2:45, 2:03, 5:22, 1:24, 0:25) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=animal-prostheses-amazing-menagerie