{"id":208459,"date":"2024-02-27T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/bizarre-fish-can-extend-its-mouth-to-make-a-kind-of-trunk\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:21:32","slug":"bizarre-fish-can-extend-its-mouth-to-make-a-kind-of-trunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/bizarre-fish-can-extend-its-mouth-to-make-a-kind-of-trunk\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre fish can extend its mouth to make a kind of trunk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"article-image-inline ArticleImage\" data-method=\"caption-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImage__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=100 100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=249 249w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/22160638\/SEI_192718710.jpg?width=900 900w\" class=\"image size-full wp-image-2418665 ReplaceImageLazyload\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1130px) 900px, (min-width: 1025px) 900, (min-width: 768px) calc(100vw - 30px), calc(100vw - 30px)\" alt=\"\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" data-credit=\"Allyson Evans\" data-caption=\"A hingemouth extending its proboscis to feed at the bottom of a tank\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">A hingemouth extending its proboscis to feed at the bottom of a tank<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">Allyson Evans<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>A fish found only in West African rivers and forest pools can stick out a trunk-like snout to suck up food or breathe air like a snorkel.<\/p>\n<p>The hingemouth (<em>Phractolaemus ansorgii<\/em>) has what biologists call a deployable proboscis, a tubular structure folded into its head that can extend upwards or downwards. The lips of the proboscis are lined with tooth-like structures made out of keratin, which the fish uses to scrape up algae or other detritus.<\/p>\n<p>\n    <iframe title=\"Bizarre hingemouth fish can extend its mouth to make a kind of trunk\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C2ApjS9yPg0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n    <\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/biology.columbian.gwu.edu\/allyson-evans\">Allyson Evans<\/a> at the George Washington University in Washington DC and her colleagues used dissection, videography and CT scans to reveal the complicated construction of its jaws.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike all other fish, whose jaw joint sits behind their mouth, the hingemouth\u2019s jaw joint is at the front of its head. The lower jaw is flipped backwards, pointing towards the throat. The upper jaw, which is connected to the lower jaw by a ligament, is part of the proboscis. \u201cYou can think of the upper jaws as being more or less suspended in the skin of the proboscis,\u201d says Evans. This is why the structure can extend so far out of the head.<\/p>\n<p>The hingemouth offers \u201ca novel mechanical solution to a ubiquitous challenge all fish face, which is how to acquire food within a viscous, fluid medium\u201d, says Evans.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"js-content-prompt-opportunity\"\/><\/p>\n<p>She has also observed the fish swimming up to the surface and taking a gulp of air, using the proboscis \u201clike a snorkel\u201d, she says. This could be a useful ability in forest pools where oxygen levels can run low.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists aren\u2019t sure how the hingemouth evolved, as the fossil evidence is sparse. \u201cThe family that <em>Phractolaemus <\/em>belongs to, Kneriidae, is believed to be mid-Cretaceous in origin, but there\u2019s simply no intermediary form found yet in the fossil record,\u201d says Evans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s most important to me is that scientists remain curious about the little freaks of the world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<section class=\"ArticleTopics\">\n<p class=\"ArticleTopics__Heading\">Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2418659-bizarre-fish-can-extend-its-mouth-to-make-a-kind-of-trunk\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] A hingemouth extending its proboscis to feed at the bottom of a tank Allyson Evans A fish found only in West African rivers and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341864,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208459\/revisions\/341864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}