Fish, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2021

'Explosive' photo captures 'otherworldly beauty' of spawning fish during a full moon

A striking photo capturing the explosive creation of life of spawning groupers beat more than 50,000 other photographs to win the grand prize at the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The underwater image, called Creation, shows camouflage groupers (Epinephelus polyphekadion), a species vulnerable to extinction, emerging from a...

Jul 31, 2021

Fish with 'human teeth' caught in North Carolina

Last week (Aug 3), anglers at Jennette's Pier in North Carolina pulled up something unexpected — and uncanny — from the Atlantic: a fish with human teeth. Yes, this fish — and its teeth — are real. But fortunately, there's nothing human about it. It's called a sheepshead fish (Archosargus...

Apr 30, 2021

What's the biggest freshwater fish in the world?

It took three biologists to haul a 240-pound (109 kilograms) fish out of the Detroit River in Michigan last month. The nearly 7-foot-long (2.1 meters) monster' sturgeon, caught and released by the Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, could be more than 100 years old. It's a mightily impressive catch...

Mar 31, 2021

Largest recorded smalltooth sawfish washes up dead in Florida

The largest sawfish ever measured by scientists was found dead in the Florida Keys last week. The 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) sharp-snouted fish was a mature female with eggs the size of softballs found in her reproductive tract. Scientists are now studying her carcass to determine her age and to learn...

Mar 31, 2021

Woman swallows fish bone, it migrates into her neck

When a woman in Malaysia accidentally swallowed a fish bone, it soon became a pain in the neck — the bone poked through her throat and became embedded in her neck muscles, according to a new report of the case. The 54-year-old woman was eating a meal of grilled wolf...

Feb 28, 2021

Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida

The rotting body of a dead Amazon river monster recently washed ashore in Florida, raising concerns about whether this gigantic predatory fish has joined the Sunshine State's ever-growing list of invasive species, according to news sources. But although it might thrive in Florida's warm waters, this fish, known as the...

Jul 31, 2022

Beneath Greenland iceberg, scientists find a glowing snailfish with antifreeze coursing through its veins

Scientists drilling deep into an iceberg off Greenland have discovered a fish with glowing green antifreeze coursing through its veins. The juvenile variegated snailfish (Liparis gibbus) contained the highest expression levels of antifreeze proteins ever reported, a new study found. Similar to how antifreeze helps to regulate the temperature of...

Jun 30, 2022

It's raining anchovies in San Francisco

It's raining fish in San Francisco, and locals are finding anchovies in unlikely places around the Bay Area, including sidewalks, driveways, rooftops and bus stops. Experts believe the fishy precipitation is the result of a surge in coastal anchovy populations, SF Gate reported. Earlier this month, the Otolith Geochemistry and...

Dec 31, 2021

Wild video shows goldfish 'driving' a water-filled car in weird experiment

Fish may not need bicycles, but they seem to like cars. A supremely weird new video shows a goldfish driving a water-filled, motorized car from one end of a room to another, bobbing and weaving to avoid obstacles along the way. Scientists performed the odd experiment to better understand how...

Jan 16, 2024

Color-changing fish turns black with rage when provoked

Dominant males of an Indonesian species of fish turn black during periods of heightened aggression, scientists have discovered. Their blackened markings, which quickly emerge at the start of a conflict, appear to serve as a signal of dominance to other fish. Celebes medaka (Oryzias celebensis) males with these distinctive black...

Feb 1, 2024

365 million-year-old 'alien' fish had one of the most extreme underbites on record

Scientists recently discovered that an ancient fossilized fish may be one of the top contenders for nature's most extreme underbite. When a researcher first unearthed the first known fossil of this fish in Poland in 1957, he thought it had a long set of fin spines, leading to the alien-inspired...

Mar 13, 2024

Prehistoric fish with giant jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth are the ultimate living fossils

Gars are the ultimate living fossils, having changed at an incredibly slow pace since their ancestors emerged during the dinosaur age 150 million years ago, scientists have revealed. This leisurely rate of change means these prehistoric fish have the slowest rate of molecular evolution among all jawed vertebrates. The gar...

Nov 9, 2022

The Devils Hole pupfish is so inbred that it shouldn’t be alive

The Devils Hole pupfish is small, blue and incredibly endangered. It also may be the most inbred creature on Earth. All 263 wild Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) live in one location: a 10-foot by 20-foot (3 by 6 meters) cavern in the middle of Devils Hole in Nevada, a...

Nov 14, 2022

Where do eels come from?

Critically endangered European eels (Anguilla anguilla) spend their adult lives in fresh water in Europe, ranging from Norway to the Mediterranean. But you won't find any baby eels in the mix. So where do all the mature eels come from? Almost entirely across the Atlantic Ocean, as it turns out....

Nov 14, 2022

Fish moms that carry young in their mouths sometimes eat their babies for breakfast

Few sights in nature are more heartwarming than that of a mother caring for her young — unless that nurturing act ends with an episode of cannibalism. Female cichlids — fish in the family Cichlidae — are mouthbrooding fish, carrying their young in their mouths first as eggs and then...