Researchers at Cornell University have shed light on a fact long ignored by science, the ability of most fish to communicate using sounds.
In the water, no one hears them scream. And yet… While for decades scientists considered that fish only emitted a few noises with no particular meaning, recent studies show that they have a whole range of sound devices that they do not deprive themselves of. ‘use. “This acoustic communication has probably been overlooked because it’s hard to hear, and scholars in this field have focused primarily on whales and dolphins,” Andrew Bass, an evolutionary neuroscientist at Cornell University, told Syfy Wire. one of the authors of a study published in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology.
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But, thanks to extremely powerful detection devices, a team of researchers was able to listen to and even record the incessant chatter of squirrelfish as well as the different physiological characteristics allowing them to produce sounds without the help of vocal cords. They can, for example, grind their teeth or very quickly contract the muscles of the swim bladder, a small “bag” filled with gas with which the fish regulates its buoyancy.
As for the content of these underwater conversations, it essentially revolves around the great problems of life such as reproduction and food. The majority of the messages exchanged could be translated, specifies Syfy Wire, by “get away from me”, “come closer”, “don’t touch my food” and “is there anyone in the area? ?”
While the Cornell University team was particularly interested in squirrel fish, this ability for acoustic communication is widespread in most species, some of which are particularly talkative, such as catfish.
Recordings of squirrelfish acoustic communications
The sonic arrangements of fish go back more than 155 million years. “These results highlight the strong selection pressure that favored the evolution of this ability across vertebrate lineages,” the scientists write in their paper. In short, the expression “dumb as a carp” is now good to put aside.
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