New fish from three
Scientists solve mystery: 3 fish are all the same - Yahoo! News
I'm a sucker for science.
Scientists have determined that three species of fish are actually one species. Their morphology is so extreme that scientists for decades were convinced they must have be different, albeit related, species; when they would find examples of each species, strangely, they could only find juveniles of one species, males of the second, and females of the third.
The juvenile form is also called tapetail fish and can grow a very long tail fin. These fish reside in the upper reaches of the ocean, above 600 feet, where food is plentiful.
When they grow up, they go down to the bottom of the ocean and change dramatically, depending on if they're male or female.
Females are called whalefish and develop a large mouth to better serve in eating where there's very little food available and you have to catch whatever you can.
Males are called bignose fish and as they develop, their jaws fuse shut, their stomachs wither, and their livers gets bigger to serve as an energy store and go out to find a female. You know the phrase about many more or less simple fish: all they do is swim, eat, and make babies? These guys don't even do the eating part anymore! Interesting form of efficiency.
I'm a sucker for science.
Scientists have determined that three species of fish are actually one species. Their morphology is so extreme that scientists for decades were convinced they must have be different, albeit related, species; when they would find examples of each species, strangely, they could only find juveniles of one species, males of the second, and females of the third.
The juvenile form is also called tapetail fish and can grow a very long tail fin. These fish reside in the upper reaches of the ocean, above 600 feet, where food is plentiful.
When they grow up, they go down to the bottom of the ocean and change dramatically, depending on if they're male or female.
Females are called whalefish and develop a large mouth to better serve in eating where there's very little food available and you have to catch whatever you can.
Males are called bignose fish and as they develop, their jaws fuse shut, their stomachs wither, and their livers gets bigger to serve as an energy store and go out to find a female. You know the phrase about many more or less simple fish: all they do is swim, eat, and make babies? These guys don't even do the eating part anymore! Interesting form of efficiency.
posted by omahaprogrammer at
1:12 PM
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