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A fish that looks like a butterfly
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This is a butterfly gurnard fish. They have a large bony head and a bony rostrum on the snout with a very small median notch with tiny spines. They are sandy with reddish bands and blotches and often turn red on capture. The greenish pectoral fins are round with bright blue spots and margins, and a roundish black blotch with a bright blue margin and scattered blue spots inside.
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6461 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
A white-blooded ice fish
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This is a white-blooded ice fish, or "crocodile fish" ( Chaenocephalus aceratus). They lack both red blood cells and hemoglobin, and so have white blood. They have translucent bodies, and absorb oxygen directly from the water around them.
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2659 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
One ugly fish
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The coelacanth is known as a “living fossil” because it looks very much like its ancestors from 300 million years ago. Its genome has been sequenced, and it, in fact, has been found to be evolving at a very slow rate. The genetic sequence also might help give some insight into the transition from fins to limbs.
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2792 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Meet the black swallower
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This is the aptly-named "black swallower" ( Chiasmodon niger), a fish known for eating bony fish up to 10x its mass and 2x its length. It's found worldwide in tropical and subtropical waters at a depth of 700-2,745 meters. Most specimens of this fish have been collected after one attempted to swallow prey too large for it to handle, and the prey could not be digested before decomposition set it. The release of gases forces the black swallower to the surface. This particular specimen was found washed up on the shore in 2007. The black swallower measures 19 cm long. The fish in its stomach is a snake mackerel measuring 86 cm. ...
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2881 |
savio |
10 years ago |
This fish looks like it can perform hypnosis
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Stargazer fish have their eyes situated on the tops of their heads and can bury themselves in the sediment with only their faces sticking out. Some species lure prey with a worm-shaped projection that comes out of their mouths. They are toxic and some can deliver a 50 volt shock!
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3908 |
savio |
10 years ago |
World's largest fish species
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This photo shows a diver almost being eaten by a whale shark, the world's largest fish species. Marine photographer Mauricio Handler captured the intense moment during a dive in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, when more than 600 of the 12-metre-long animals gathered to feed on tuna spawn.
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3096 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How do fish see in the dark?
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The angry-looking deep sea angler fish has a right to be cranky. It is quite possibly the ugliest animal on the planet, and it lives in what is easily Earth's most inhospitable habitat: the lonely, lightless bottom of the sea. There are more than 200 species of anglerfish, most of which live in the murky depths of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans, up to a mile below the surface, although some live in shallow, tropical environments. Generally dark gray to dark brown in color, they have huge heads and enormous crescent-shaped mouths filled with sharp, translucent teeth. Some angler fish can be quite large, reaching 3.3 feet (1 meter) in length. Most however are significantly smaller, often less than a foot. Their mouths are so big and their bo ...
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4472 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
What accounts for blue blood found in invertebrates
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Hemocyanins are proteins that transport oxygen throughout the bodies of some invertebrate animals. These metalloproteins contain two copper atoms that reversibly bind a single oxygen molecule (O 2). They are second only to hemoglobin in frequency of use as an oxygen transport molecule. Unlike the hemoglobin in red blood cells found in vertebrates, hemocyanins are not bound to blood cells but are instead suspended directly in the hemolymph. Oxygenation causes a color change between the colorless Cu(I) deoxygenated form and the blue Cu(II) oxygenated form. ...
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5243 |
bio_man |
10 years ago |
A new species of giant fish as been discovered
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The new species is member of the arapaima genus, which contains some of the world’s biggest freshwater fish that breathe air and weigh up to 200kg. Found in the central Amazon of Brazil, the new fish has been named Arapaima leptosoma and is the first new species of arapaima described since 1847.
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3941 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How to withstand a piranha attack
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The arapaima ( Arapaima gigas) is one of the biggest freshwater fish on the planet and has evolved a multi-layer defence against the piranha. Its scales have an ultra-tough outer shell, which promotes tooth fracture at the point of penetration. The scales are also a corrugated shape, which deflect pressure to overlapping layers of collagen underneath.
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5040 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Some fish celebrate Halloween everyday
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While we're talking about Halloween, this is the Atlantic wolffish ( Anarhichas lupus), very appropriately and otherwise known as the ‘devil fish’. The hefty fish grows up to 1.5 metres long and over 20kg, and they’re named for those unmistakable fangs. If they're not scary enough, their throats are also lined with a spattering of small, serrated teeth.
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4584 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A fish that spits
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Besides what we probably have seen while watching The Little Mermaid - fish singing and playing instruments, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale - whale being cleaned at a whale wash! , or even Spongebob Square pants - making hamburgers that is, have you ever seen or heard of a spitting fish? Well, I have not, until today.. Apparently, the archerfish from the family Toxotidea, literally "spit" to catch their prey. It is like a frog, but upgraded, in the sense that it catches insects and land based prey without a weapon, or a physical means. It just teleports its prey from above water, into the water by knocking it out via shooting water droplets. The missile strength of the water droplet is created and altered based on how far and how big their prey is ...
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6249 |
ehd123 |
10 years ago |
My new favourite animal
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Meet the guineafowl puffer ( Arothron meleagris), all puffed-up and poisonous to deter any would-be predators. Found throughout the Indo-Pacific and Eastern Pacific Oceans, this spotty species loves feeding on tiny marine invertebrates and the tips of coral.
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7567 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
How apes go fishing
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This is the first photograph taken of an orangutan using a tool to fish in Borneo. The photo captures a moment when this male was using the pole to catch fish trapped in the locals’ fishing lines.
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3127 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A fish that doubles as a camera stand
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Found all around the world, including off the coast of Australia, the tripod fish can live in depths of up to 6 km below the surface. The purpose of those super-long fins is to elevate the tripod fish to about a metre above the seabed, where the ocean's current is strong. This means that small prawns and crabs are ushered right into the tripod fish's gaping mouth, and all it has to do is stand there.
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3230 |
duddy |
10 years ago |