The elephantnose fish is a weakly electric mormyrid fish which generates an electric field with its electric organ and then uses its electroreceptive knollenorgans and mormyromasts to locate nearby objects by the distortions they cause in the electric field.[1]
Electroreception and electrogenesis are the closely related biological abilities to perceive electrical stimuli and to generate electric fields. Both are used to locate prey; stronger electric discharges are used in a few groups of fishes (most famously the electric eel, which is not actually an eel but a knifefish) to stun prey. The capabilities are found almost exclusively in aquatic or amphibious animals, since water is a much better conductor of electricity than air. In passive electrolocation, objects such as prey are detected by sensing the electric fields they create. In active electrolocation, fish generate a weak electric field and sense the different distortions of that field created by objects that conduct or resist electricity. Active electrolocation is practised by two groups of weakly electric fish, the Gymnotiformes (knifefishes) and the Mormyridae (elephantfishes), and by Gymnarchus niloticus, the African knifefish. An electric fish generates an electric field using an electric organ, modified from muscles in its tail. The field is called weak if it is only enough to detect prey, and strong if it is powerful enough to stun or kill. The field may be in brief pulses, as in the elephantfishes, or a continuous wave, as in the knifefishes. Some strongly electric fish, such as the electric eel, locate prey by generating a weak electric field, and then discharge their electric organs strongly to stun the prey; other strongly electric fish, such as the electric ray, electrolocate passively. The stargazers are unique in being strongly electric but not using electrolocation.
The electroreceptive ampullae of Lorenzini evolved early in the history of the vertebrates; they are found in both cartilaginous fishes such as sharks, and in bony fishes such as coelacanths and sturgeons, and must therefore be ancient. Most bony fishes have secondarily lost their ampullae of Lorenzini, but other non-homologous electroreceptors have repeatedly evolved, including in two groups of mammals, the monotremes (platypus and echidnas) and the cetaceans (Guiana dolphin).
^von der Emde, G. (15 May 1999). "Active electrolocation of objects in weakly electric fish". Journal of Experimental Biology. 202 (10): 1205–1215. doi:10.1242/jeb.202.10.1205. PMID 10210662.
and 29 Related for: Electroreception and electrogenesis information
J. S., and W. G. R. Crampton. 2005. Electroreceptionandelectrogenesis. Pp. 431-472 in The Physiology of Fishes, 3rd Edition. D. H. Evans and J. B. Claiborne...
Albert, J.S., and W.G.R. Crampton. 2005. Electroreceptionandelectrogenesis. pp. 431–472 in The Physiology of Fishes, 3rd Edition. D.H. Evans and J.B. Claiborne...
S2CID 13359966. Albert, J. S.; Crampton, William G. R. (2006). "Electroreceptionandelectrogenesis". In Evans, David H.; Claiborne, James B. (eds.). The Physiology...
physically associated with and evolved from the mechanosensory lateral line organs of early vertebrates. Passive electroreception using ampullae is an ancestral...
that allow fish to breathe underwater. Most fish exchange gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide using gills that are protected under gill covers (operculum)...
from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the Cambrian to the Quaternary...
accompanied by their possible meanings. Scientific names for individual species and higher taxa are included in parentheses. Contents: Top 0–9 A B C D E F G...
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals...
sea anemones, starfish, snails, bristleworms and sea cucumbers—and benthivore or benthivorous, for fish and invertebrates that feed on material from the...
Juvenile fish Fish go through various life stages between fertilization and adulthood. The life of fish start as spawned eggs which hatch into immotile...
including fish and cephalopods. The organ can be simple, or as complex as the human eye; equipped with lenses, shutters, color filters and reflectors, however...
(using paired fins and tail), and jumping. Many of these locomotory modes incorporate multiple combinations of pectoral-, pelvic-, and tail-fin movement...
(Schindleria brevipinguis) where females reach it at 7 mm (0.28 in) and males at 6.5 mm (0.26 in), and Photocorynus spiniceps where males can reach it at 6.2 mm...
Holmes; Hopkins, Carl D.; Popper, Arthur N.; Fay, Richard R. (2005). Electroreception. Springer. pp. 5–7. ISBN 978-0-387-23192-1. Faria, Vicente V.; McDavitt...
Albert, J.S., and W.G.R. Crampton. 2005. Electroreceptionandelectrogenesis. pp. 431–472 in The Physiology of Fishes, 3rd Edition. D.H. Evans and J.B. Claiborne...
portal Bichirs /ˈbɪʃɪərz/ and the reedfish comprise Polypteridae /pɒlɪpˈtɛrɪdiː/, a family of archaic ray-finned fishes and the only family in the order...
Milt is the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals which reproduce by spraying this fluid, which contains the sperm...
appearing as pits in the skin of sharks and some other fishes, evolved from the lateral line organ. Passive electroreception using ampullae is an ancestral trait...
a sense other than vision. This opened up research into electroreceptionandelectrogenesis in fish. Like the related elephantfish, which hunts the same...
some or all of their lives in bodies of fresh water such as rivers, lakes and inland wetlands, where the salinity is less than 1.05%. These environments...
adult fish live in the sea and migrate into fresh water to spawn; and catadromous, in which adult fish live in fresh water and migrate into salt water to...
most often by wave-like lateral flexions of the fish's body and tail in the water, and in various specialised fish by motions of the fins. The major...
the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha (or Selachii) and are the sister...
including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had...
sub-group of suspension feeding animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized...
soft tissues and in the coelomic cavity around the gut. Their fillets may contain up to 30% oil, although this figure varies both within and between species...
fish of the family Tripterygiidae. Found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the family contains about 150 species...
Global Information