Toadfish communication more complex than previously believed
MAY 13, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025307
Wired : Birds, amphibians, and mammals often use hard-to-discern sounds to add an extra layer of vocal information, but until now such sounds had not been detected in fish, writes Dave Mosher for Wired. In a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Aaron Rice, a biologist at Cornell University, and coworkers analyzed the vocalizations of the three-spined toadfish. Swim bladders, air-filled sacs that allow the toadfish to alter its buoyancy, also serve as sonic instruments when the fish vibrates the muscles in the sacs. The researchers found that the sound produced contains surprisingly complex information, including subtle harmonics and dissonances.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
