It is known that many animals communicate using sounds, but fish are not usually among them, and while we have known for thousands of years that some fish make sounds, it was thought that they were the exception rather than the rule.
A new study, published in the Journal of Ichthyology & Herpetology on January 20, challenges this idea, and provides evidence that a large group of fish communicate using sounds through ways that evolved on least 33 distinct times over the course of 155 million years.
As reported by Science Alert, it was assumed that fish relied primarily on other means of communication, from color signals and body language to electrical signals.
But recent discoveries have shown that fish have choruses of dawn and dusk, just like birds.
Coral reefs, for example, are surprisingly noisy places, and many of the noise sources are the sounds of fish.
The vocal behavior of fish
A team from Cornell University has scanned countless existing papers and recordings to compile comprehensive information on the vocal behavior of fish, and by searching records of anatomical descriptions and audio recordings, they have identified several physiological features that allow the group of "radial-finned" fish (Actinopterygii). ) - which contains more than 34,000 currently alive species - by making these sounds without vocal cords.
"Fish is a problematic term because it basically collects organisms that don't share a common ancestor," Aaron Rice, an ecologist at Cornell University's Lisa Yang Center for Bioacoustics, told Syfy Wire. What do we think of finned fish?
"We've known for a long time that some fish make sounds, but fish noises have always been viewed as a rare anomaly," Rice said in a Cornell University news release.
This type of fish clearly has some important things to say. Of the 175 families of fish, this group of fish acquired the ability to speak, are much more talkative than thought, and two-thirds of them were likely to communicate by sound.
Encyclopedia of the language of fish
Rice and colleagues found that sounds were made under a number of different behavioral contexts that are similar to those seen in other animals and in humans.
Among these sounds are special calls related to sex and reproduction, and fish usually make what are known as aggressive sounds in an attempt to defend a food source or area of influence.
The Encyclopedia of Fish Language is filled with variations on phrases such as “get away from me,” “close to me,” “don’t touch my food,” and “is anyone there?” However, these behaviors are not general across species or families.
Instead, the body of evidence suggests that some fish are more talkative than others.
The team found a strong relationship between the intensity of a particular environment and the level of audio communication that occurs in it.
Those fish that live in coral reefs or in the Amazon, which are the equivalent places of a big city, are more likely to talk than individual fish.
While this study provides evidence that fish are more communicative than previously thought, the lack of evidence for vocal behavior in a particular family or species does not necessarily mean that they are silent.
Catfish were among the most talkative groups of fish (pixabi)
The evolution of voice communication
Scientists used 3 sources of information: current records and scientific papers describing fish sounds, and the known anatomy of fish, and they found a number of modifications that allow fish to make sounds without taking advantage of their vocal cords.
"The muscles associated with the swimming bladder are probably the most common adaptations," said Rice. "In fact, the floating bladder muscles of a frog are the fastest contracting skeletal muscles of vertebrates. They are high-performance adaptations."
Evidence suggests that land animals with backbones first spoke about 155 million years ago, which is interesting, because they are among the animals that scientists claim we eventually evolved from.
The analysis suggests that these vocal connections may have evolved independently at least 33 times in fish.
"Our results strongly support the hypothesis that vocal behavior is archaic," the team wrote in their paper.
"Together, these results highlight the strong selection pressure in favor of the evolution of this trait across vertebrate lineages," they added.
Some researchers are trying to use fish songs as underwater calls to regenerate coral (pixabi)
fish songs
Some groups of fish were more talkative than others, with toadfish and catfish among the most prolific groups.
"Fishes do everything," Rice said. "They breathe air, they fly, they eat anything and everything, and at this point, nothing surprises me about the fish and the sounds they can make."
The search for additional aquatic contacts between fish continues apace and understanding these relationships may be more important than ever, as a better understanding of how fish communicate – and how our activities can affect their ecosystem – allows us to make informed decisions about wildlife management.
Some researchers have even been trying to use the fish's songs (calls) as calls to bring the fish back to replenish the reefs.
However, Rice and his team caution that their analysis only shows one group of fish is doing vocal communication, and we may not have listened seriously enough to the other groups just yet, and we should listen carefully in the future to what the fish are telling us and find out what they need.