The 'loudest' small fish ever discovered by scientists | Sciences

🐟 A small transparent fish emits a The sound is as loud as a jackhammer. This is what scientists discovered in Berlin, Germany.

They began investigating after hearing mysterious sounds coming from their laboratory's aquariums.

Discover these fish of this type Brain Danionella Produce Vigorous drumming in an organ called the swim bladder.

In the water near the fish sounds reach 140 decibels, which is as loud as a gunshot.

Researchers think so At 12 mm long, this species is the loudest fish by size ever found.

👉 They suggest that “drumming” may be a form of social communication.

In most kingdoms of nature, The larger the animal, the louder the sound.

Underwater it's a different story – This tiny species is now one of the loudest species ever discovered.

Scientists know that other creatures, such as snapping shrimp or pistol shrimp, can make very loud noises while hunting other species, up to nearly 200 decibels.

fish Brain Danionella Science prizes them because their transparency means you can see your brain in action, and this allows researchers to closely study your behavior.

But while working with these fish in their lab in Germany, Scientists noticed something strange.

“People were walking by the aquariums and could hear these sounds, and wondered where they were coming from,” says lead author Verity Cook, a doctoral student at Charite University in Berlin.

“And it turns out (The sounds) were coming from the fish themselves. “It's extraordinary, because they're so small and they make so much noise.”

With the help of an array of microphones and video cameras, the research team was quickly able to determine how loud the sound was.

“At a distance of one body length, the sound is about 140 decibels, and that's how loud we think other fish can hear it,” she told the BBC.

“Sound weakens with distance, so at one meter its amplitude is about 108 decibels.”

📢 This is still roughly equivalent to the noise produced by the excavator.

Much of this sound is reflected back into the water, so when someone stands next to the aquarium they hear these pulses as a continuous hum.

Although other fish, e.g Borichthys notatus And the Pogonias chromisbe louder, they are all much bigger Of the representatives of the species Brain Danionella.

“With regard to communication signals, I could not find another animal of this size that makes such loud sounds“, adds Cook.

Researchers believe that the rhythm mechanism used by fish is a highly sophisticated tool.

All bony fish have a swim bladder, a gas-filled organ that helps them stay underwater.

Many species use their muscles to “drum” this organ and make sounds, however Danionella cerebrum goes even further.

👉 When a muscle contracts, it pulls on a rib, pulling on the piece of cartilage inside the muscle.

When the cartilage is released, it hits the swim bladder.

Only males of this species make this sound. -And they only do it when they're in company. Some are longer than others.

“We know that when you suddenly have eight males together in a large tank, three of them will dominate the sound production, and the rest will remain quiet. So we think there's a kind of hierarchy“, explains Cook.

Researchers think so The fact that it evolved in the murky waters of Myanmar played a role in developing this ability to generate loud noise To help them communicate.

“Evolution has created many interesting ways to solve many interesting problems,” Cook says.

“And we shouldn't assume that we know how things work just because of how things work in other species.”

The study was published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.