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The swamp fish that loves to live in trees 19 October 2007 Elie Dolgin Magazine issue 2626 Something fishy is happening in the mangrove forests of the western Atlantic. A fish is living in the trees. The mangrove killifish (Kryptolebias marmoratus) is a tiny fish that lives in ephemeral pools of water around the roots of mangroves. When these dry up the 100-milligram fish can survive for months in moist spots on land. Being stranded high and dry makes it hard to find a mate, but fortunately the killifish doesn't need a partner to reproduce. It is the only known hermaphrodite vertebrate that is self-fertilising. Now biologists wading through muddy mangrove swamps in Belize and Florida have discovered another exceptional adaptation. Near dried-up pools, they found hundreds of killifish lined up end to end, like peas in a pod, inside the tracks carved out by insects in rotting logs. "They really don't meet standard behavioural criteria for fish," says Scott Taylor of the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered ... http://www.newscientist.com/iplogin.ns;jsessionid=GJBGFEDICPMA This fish made the news |