Electric eels curl up to deliver even more powerful shocks

The electric eel may be one of the most remarkable predators in the entire animal kingdom. That is the conclusion of Kenneth Catania, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University, who has spent the ...

Electric eels found to use jolt also for electrolocation

(Phys.org)—Kenneth Catania, a biological scientist with Vanderbilt University, has found evidence that suggests that electric eels use their electrical powers to both stun prey and to find them. In his paper published in ...

Genetic analysis of the American eel helps explain its decline

The American eel has been a concern for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2007, when it was first considered for, but failed to receive, Endangered Species Act protection. The numbers of these slender, slimy, ancient ...

Evolutionary constraints revealed in diversity of fish skulls

In the aquatic environment, suction feeding is far more common than biting as a way to capture prey. A new study shows that the evolution of biting behavior in eels led to a remarkable diversification of skull shapes, indicating ...

New blind catfish and eel found in India

(Phys.org)—A research team in the southern Indian state of Kerala has discovered a new species of blind catfish living in a deep well. The newly discovered fish was named Horaglanis abdulkalami in honor of a former president ...

Human-like spine morphology found in aquatic eel fossil

For decades, scientists believed that a spine with multiple segments was an exclusive feature of land-dwelling animals. But the discovery of the same anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel suggests that this complex ...

'Fossil eel' squirms into the record books

A new species of eel found in the gloom of an undersea cave is a "living fossil" astonishingly similar to the first eels that swam some 200 million years ago, biologists reported on Wednesday.

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