Thin tough skin, slow-growing gills protect larval Antarctic fish
...ls. "The way that we've understood how adult polar fishes survive has been based on their use of these antifreeze proteins to lower the freezing point of their internal fluids," said lead author Paul A. Cziko, a research specialist in the department of animal biology. "We finally got a chance to look at the...Scientists look to the Bahamas as a model for coral reef conservation
..."The Science results suggest that parks protecting fishes may also have beneficial effects on corals, by enhancing grazing and thereby contributing to the ability of reefs to bounce back from disturbances." said project co-principal investigator Micheli. These results highlight the inherent complexity of li......he Census of Marine Life, have revealed that these fishes may in fact be gathering at features such as ridge...sterious. Adequate understanding of the deepwater fishes has been hard to come by because deep-sea fish research has remained extremely limited. Not since t...Oceans are 70 percent shark free
...The average depth of the oceans is 4,000m and bony fishes - relatives of cod - thrive down to around 9,000m depth. Scientists do not know why sharks are absent from the deep but suggest one possible reason could be due to lack of food. They warn their finding has environmental implications. Professor Mo......the number of species and extent of coral and reef fishes from south to north. These data were corroborated by analysis of tissue for the dominant seaweed species at each location, which, again, revealed less phosphorus at southern sites and more to the north. These gradients were much more pronounced dur...Convergent evolution of molecules in electric fish
...environment. The researchers found that electric fishes expressed one of the sodium channel genes in their electric organs only, while non-electric fish express both genes in their muscles. "Most fish have both genes in the muscle, but as the new electric organ was evolving, the sodium channel--by being l...Rare Chinese frogs communicate by means of ultrasonic sound
...our own," Feng said. "The electromagnetic sense in fishes and homing pigeons, polarized light vision in ants, chemical sensing of pheromones in insects and rodents, echolocation by ultrasound in bats and dolphins, are just a few examples. "That frogs can communicate with ultrasound adds to that list and rep...UCSD project takes fish collection into the digital age
...w tools for online digital dissection of preserved fishes from one of the world's most valuable natural hist...h-resolution, three-dimensional, online catalog of fishes from Scripps's Marine Vertebrate Collection, one of the world's most comprehensive and valuable libr...New Arctic fossils fill evolutionary gap between fish and limbed animals
...e bones that connect the skull to the shoulders in fishes are not found in Tiktaalik, also hinting at its tetrapod-like nature. An intermediate stage in the transition from fin to limb is also exhibited in the bones of the pectoral fins, which show robust skeletal elements indicative of powerful and mobile ...African amphibians make extreme parental sacrifice: The skin off their backs
...urator in the U-M Museum of Zoology. "Some cichlid fishes are known to provide their hatchlings with nutrition through skin secretions, but this does not include skin feeding." Earlier observations of another species in the same order of amphibians foreshadowed the latest discovery. In the 1990s, the same r...Mobile DNA part of evolution's toolbox
...ere LF stands for lobe-finned fishes--the group of fishes that gave rise to both the coelacanth and terrestrial vertebrates. The LF-SINE was very active in the evolutionary lineage leading to the terrestrial vertebrates, but much less active after animals moved onto land. Humans have 245 recognizable copie...$1 million in grants go to large pelagics research
...lity to identify spawning habitat of large pelagic fishes ($176,210)Robert Cowen, Ph.D., Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami Reconstructing diet histories and migration pathways of bluefin tuna from compound-specific stable isotope analyses of scales and bone ($94,832)...How healthy is that marsh? Biologists count parasites
...into information on resident populations of birds, fishes and benthic invertebrates. "We think counting trematodes is an effective tool for assessing the biodiversity of salt marshes in California," Lafferty said. "We are interested in developing similar techniques for other ecosystems, such as coral reefs ...Butterfly speciation event recreated
...be quite rare. In Ragoletis fruit flies, Swordtail fishes and African Cichlids there is growing evidence for homoploid hybrid speciation. This report of the laboratory creation of a hybrid butterfly nearly identical to a known wild species, and the observation that hybrid individuals don't mate with either ...Researchers discover which organs in Antarctic fish produce antifreeze
...ver has no role in the freezing avoidance in these fishes at all." Instead, antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP) ...ajor AFGP synthesis site in Antarctic notothenioid fishes from hatching through adulthood, while the liver is AFGP-expression null in all life stages," the re...Alternative approaches to marine management prove successful in reef conservation
...exhibited the greatest average size and biomass of fishes within the management areas were the self-governing, traditionally managed systems. The other site was one of the co-managed systems. The authors note that, contrary to the idea that permanent reef closures are the most effective ways to improve reef...UF scientists discover evolutionary origin of fins, limbs
...ntually limb - locomotion, Cohn said. The earliest fishes lacked paired fins, similar to the modern-day lamprey - a species of jawless fish with a dorsal fin and tail but no side fins - considered by biologists to share many features with the ancestor of all vertebrates. "The emergence of paired appendage......o the animal food chain including commercial reef fishes reducing the protein-rich food available for the Caribbean people," say the researchers. When the hawksbill's numbers were larger they ate more toxic sponges. Now however, the results suggest the turtles are eating more non-toxic sponges. Accordin...Microbes compete with animals for food by making it stink
...es could produce chemicals that prevented crabs or fishes from using these resources, then those microbes sh...eds of stone crabs, as well as other crab species, fishes and snails. Many more animals were attracted to the freshly thawed bait than the rotten fish. "So...Ancient predator had strongest bite of any fish, rivaling bite of large alligators and T. rex
... fish was a placoderms, a diverse group of armored fishes that dominated aquatic ecosystems during the Devonian, from 415 million to 360 million years ago. Dunkleosteus bladed jaws suggest that it was among the first vertebrates to use rapid mouth opening and a powerful bite to capture and fragment evasive ...