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macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Fish out of water | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
[link]
It's one of the golden rules of the natural world - birds live in trees, fish live in water. The trouble is, no one bothered to tell the mangrove killifish. Scientists have discovered that it spends several months of every year out of the water and living inside trees. Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air. Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat. The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man. Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean. The latest discovery was made by biologists wading through swamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out of the water in the rotting branches and trunks of trees. The fish had flopped their way to their new homes when their pools of water around the roots of mangroves dried up. Inside the logs, they were lined up end to end along tracks carved out by insects. Dr Scott Taylor of the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Programme in Florida admitted the creatures were a little odd. "They really don't meet standard behavioural criteria for fish," he told New Scientist magazine. Although the cracks inside logs make a perfect hiding place, conditions can be cramped. The fish - which are usually fiercely territorial - are forced to curb their aggression. Another study, published earlier this year, revealed how they alter their bodies and metabolism to cope with life out of water. Their gills are altered to retain water and nutrients, while they excrete nitrogen waste through their skin. These changes are reversed as soon as they return to the water. Previously their biggest claim to fame was that they are the only known vertebrate - animal with a backbone - to reproduce without the need for a mate. Killifish can develop both female and male sexual organs, and fertilise their eggs while they are still in the body, laying tiny embryos into the water. They are not the only fish able to breathe air. The walking catfish of South-east Asia has gills that allow it to breathe in air and in water. The climbing perch of India can suffocate in water unless it can also gulp in air. okay, so there's a fish that can change it's breathing and live out of water, along with two other fish who breath air. news er something.
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AdminQuetzal Inactive Member |
Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.
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Quetzal Member (Idle past 5900 days) Posts: 3228 Joined: |
Very cool, brenna. As an additional note, there are several species of the rather largish family of blennies (family Blennidae) that seem to thrive for short periods of time outside of water. These tide pool fish are pretty familiar to folks who like to peer into rocky pools between the low and highwater marks. Here's a pic of one:
Sometimes called rock blenny or common blenny, they survive for up to several minutes outside of the water by gulping a bubble of air and keeping it in their mouths. Oxygen diffuses slowly through the membranes in their mouth and throat. This adaptation allows them to live in oxygen starved tide pools, or even leave one pool if it dries up and move to another nearby by flopping on to the rocks. It is also an escape mechanism - I've teased them into doing it simply by dipping my hand into a pool and watching them scatter. I wonder how creationists would explain all these critters? After all, fish kind swim in water - it's the defining characteristic of the baramin, n'est-ce pas? Since they deny the possibility that fish evolved into land-dwelling vertebrates, to see an organism like your tree-dwelling fish must give them fits. I wonder if we're looking at another lineage in the process of changing their habitats to a new one...It appears that fish are still leaving the water. *Photo credit: British Marine Life Study Society Edited by Quetzal, : added credit
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AdminQuetzal Inactive Member |
Brenna: If you'd like this moved to "In the News" - to garner more discussion perhaps - I'll be happy to move it again.
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macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
either way. i just thought i'd point it out. you know, fish leaving the water and all that.
maybe we should make it into a "fish that leave the water" thread.
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Phat Member Posts: 18348 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.0 |
wow...ya learn something every day! Is there any animals that do the opposite? Leave the land and start living underwater?
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macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
hippopotomusses?
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jar Member (Idle past 422 days) Posts: 34026 From: Texas!! Joined: |
Sea Turtles.
Whales. Dolphin. Sea Otters. River Otters. Aslan is not a Tame Lion
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New Cat's Eye Inactive Member |
and the Marine Iguana for a reptile that has.
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Taz Member (Idle past 3320 days) Posts: 5069 From: Zerus Joined: |
I'm not sure how it is new info for us to find out more fish that can breathe air, considering that one of the most common pet fish (beta) that are found in pet stores everywhere breathe air to live.
Disclaimer: Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style. He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!
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macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
i believe gold fish do as well. i think the big thing though is that it lives in trees.
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Taz Member (Idle past 3320 days) Posts: 5069 From: Zerus Joined: |
Ok, obviously god made it that way.
Disclaimer: Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style. He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!
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