Mercury is a highly toxic chemical element, and although it is dangerous in its elemental form, it becomes especially harmful when it is converted into methylmercury. This compound, accumulating in marine organisms, can enter the food chain and cause severe health effects, particularly impacting the neurological development of fetuses and children. The severity lies in […]
Fishes
Tiktaalik, a 375-Million-Year-Old Fish, is the Missing Link to Vertebrates Walking Out of Water
Even before fins evolved into legs, our ancient ancestors’ skeletons were changing in ways that would help them support their bodies on land. A team of scientists, including a biologist from Penn State University, have created a new reconstruction of Tiktaalik, a 375 million year old fossil fish considered one of our closest relatives that […]
Fish Get Smaller as Water Warms, but Scientists Don’t Know Why
A team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that a major theory explaining why fish are decreasing in size as waters warm may not be true. Known as the Gill Oxygen Limitation theory (GOL), it has been proposed as the universal mechanism that governs fish size. However, after extensive experiments, researchers […]
The Secrets of Vocalization and Sounds Emitted by Midshipman Fish Discovered by Researchers
The midbrain of the vocal Plainfin midshipman fish, sometimes called the “singing fish of California”, plays an important role in initiating and patterning the trains of sounds used in vocal communication. It turns out the midbrain of these fish can be a useful model for how mammals and other vertebrates, including humans, control vocal expressions, […]
Major Roman Site in Sicily Reveals the Origins of Mediterranean Fish Salting Industry
Researchers from the universities of Cádiz and Catania are excavating the Portopalo di Capo Passero site in southeast Sicily to study the origin and development of the fish salting industry in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Roman period. According to archaeologists, Portopalo was the oldest known example of salting factories in the Central Mediterranean. Its origins […]