Strange Fish Can Spit Water With Remarkable Accuracy

Archerfish known for their habit of "shooting" their prey down with streams of water dropletsts.

“One of the last strongholds of human uniqueness is our ability to powerfully throw stones or spears at distant targets” explains Stefan Schuster. “This is really an impressive capability and requires—among many fascinating aspects—precise time control of movement.” While this sounds like an accurate description of human evolution, Schuster is actually using humanity as a reference for a unique fish with a remarkable penchant for spitting. The archerfish, which lives in the open ocean and some smaller bodies of water throughout most parts of Southeast Asia can actually shoot water from its mouth at an unsuspecting victim. Yes, like a spitball in a middle school classroom. Except that the archerfish doesn’t need a straw or a ball of paper. It can shoot a stream of water at a target up to two 2 feet away. We know this because Schuster partnered with study co-author Peggy Gerullis to examine these fish as they underwent a form of target practice. They watched as the fish collected their ammunition, formed the projectile and then fired it at their targets. They learned that these fish do not have a fixed procedure for shooting the water. There is no set of steps. They make adjustments according to their target to make sure that the water droplet has formed just right. These fish can achieve this by controlling the shifting variables in a cross-section of their mouth opening. They make their adjustments to timing are quite similar to that humans, to which Schuster explains: “It is believed that this ability has forced our brains to become bigger, housing many more neurons to afford the precision,” he continues. The researcher at the University of Bayreuth goes on, “With the many neurons around, they could be used for other tasks apart from applying for powerful throws. It is remarkable that the same line of reasoning could also be applied to archerfish.” Source: The PNC Voice