Fish, as a topic, encompasses the study of aquatic, primarily gill-breathing vertebrates within ichthyology, integrating anatomy, physiology, ecology, evolution, and systematics across jawless (Agnatha), cartilaginous (Chondrichthyes), and bony (Osteichthyes) lineages. Research topics include osmoregulatory strategies in freshwater and marine environments, hydrodynamics of locomotion, sensory biology (e.g., lateral line and electroreception), reproductive modes, life-history strategies, and trophic interactions within aquatic food webs. Fish also serve as model systems in developmental biology, genomics, ecotoxicology, and conservation biology, with topics addressing population dynamics, stock assessment, habitat degradation, climate-driven distribution shifts, and biodiversity patterns in marine and inland waters.
MBARI's advanced underwater technology is revealing the remarkable species that thrive in the deep sea. In 2019, MBARI researchers encountered an unfamiliar pink snailfish swimming just above the seafloor. New research from ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 8, 2025
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2984
The modern coelacanth is a famous "living fossil," long thought to have died out, but first fished out of deep waters in the Indian Ocean in 1938. Since then, dozens of examples have been found, but their fossil history is ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Sep 8, 2025
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1098
Male "ghost sharks"—eerie deep-sea fish known as chimaeras that are related to sharks and rays—have a strange rod jutting from their foreheads, studded with sharp, retractable teeth. New research appearing in Proceedings ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 4, 2025
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388
In the next 75 years, surface sea temperatures may rise by up to 4°C, with increasingly frequent short-term marine heat waves also predicted. This could cause significant damage to our essential marine ecosystems, for example, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 4, 2025
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23
Farmed fish are increasingly replacing wild fish to meet consumer demand in China, as well as Australia—and barramundi is a popular choice.
Ecology
Sep 4, 2025
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31
In the waters of the Salish Sea, endangered southern resident killer whales and the struggling Chinook salmon they depend on are at the center of one of Canada's most visible conservation conflicts.
Ecology
Sep 3, 2025
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19
Experts have uncovered the earliest known example of a fish with extra teeth deep inside its mouth—a 310-million-year-old fossilized ray-finned fish that evolved a unique way of devouring prey.
Evolution
Sep 3, 2025
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167
If you're reading this sentence, you might have a fish to thank. Fish were the first animals to evolve jaws. They use their jaws primarily to eat, but also for defense, as tools—such as to burrow or to crack open hard food—and ...
Evolution
Sep 2, 2025
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77
In a recent study, a research team led by Martin Ebert from the Ludwig Maximilian University and Adriana López-Arbarello from the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo examined fossil fish specimens of the family Caturidae housed in various ...
The viability of fish populations relies on healthy habitats where juveniles can spawn, feed and develop. A cornerstone of sustainable fisheries management, these habitats are facing increased pressure from coastal development, ...
Ecology
Sep 1, 2025
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