The dog fish, the fish that is able to camouflage itself after having died

2023-08-24 12:16:18

Updated Thursday, August 24, 2023 – 12:16

A study discovers that this animal detects light only with its skin, apart from its eyes and brain

The dog fish, the fish that is able to camouflage itself after having died Science A study shows that fish also have empathy Evolution They identify the genes that allowed fish to spread across the oceans

Just as humans use mirrors to see our bodies or the way we are dressed, scientists have deciphered the capabilities of a fish, ‘Lachnolaimus maximus’to visualize their own skin and be able to use that information as a self-defense mechanism.

It is a species known as dog fish for its pointed snout, quite common in the American Atlantic, between the east coast of USA and the North of Brazil.

This fish’s ability to change color in a matter of milliseconds caught the attention of one of the study’s authors, biologist Lori Schweikertcurrently at the University of North Carolina, while fishing.

When the researcher prepared to store the fish in the ship’s refrigerator after having caught it, she realized that it had acquired the same color as the deck of the boat.

The fact that the fish was able to camouflage itself, even after death, caught Scheweikert’s attention, since it could indicate that the animal detects light only with its skin, apart from its eyes and brain.

Studies of the animal’s skin vision determined that dogfish carry a gene that contains a light-sensitive protein called Opsinwhich is activated in the skin and which is different from the opsin in the eye.

The question that the research published in Nature Communications has tried to answer is how this light detector on the skin works.

Their findings conclude that the animal has a sensory feedback mechanism which functions as a kind of internal Polaroid camera that allows you to literally have an internal “photo” of your own skin from within.

“We are not saying that the skin of the dogfish works like an eye, because the eye is not only limited to detecting light, it also forms images, but it is a sensory feedback mechanism that allows it to control the color changes of its color. own skin and adapt them to what their eyes see”, explains Scheweikert, in the statement released by the magazine.

The information obtained through this cutaneous vision offers the dogfish the ability to hide from predators or other threats, among others, which in this case can be a matter of life and death.

The authors of the study, conducted by the Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University and the Air Force Laboratory, believe their findings will be useful for technological developments such as self driving carsone of whose challenges is to adjust its performance with sensors without relying solely on imaging techniques.