When they erupt out of the water, they spread their enlarged fins and glide.
The photos showed that flying fish leap out of the water and glide, before propelling themselves back into the air.įlying fish swim towards the surface at speeds of about 3 feet (1 meter) per second (which is 20-30 times their body length per second), beating their tail furiously and holding their pectoral fins tightly against their body. It wasn't until 1941 that scientists published high-speed photographs of flying fish in action in the journal Zoologica. The fish are so fast, that for decades, biologists couldn't tell for sure if the fish were propelling themselves by flapping their pectoral fins and flying like a bird, or if the fish were using some unique method of propulsion. (Image credit: Getty images) Flying fish don't actually fly they glideįlying fish soar at very high speeds above the water. Davenport proposes that these species of fish evolved the ability to "fly" as a way to evade speed-swimmer predators such as the dolphinfish ( Coryphaena hippurus).įlying fish confused early mariners, who thought these odd swimming and flying creatures would return to shore at night to sleep.
Juvenile fish will begin "flying" once they reach about 2 inches (5 cm) in length, according to biologist John Davenport's 1994 review on flying fish published in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (opens in new tab). These unusual fish range in length from about 6 to 20 inches (15 to 50 centimeters), or about one or two brick lengths. All flying fish have an asymmetrical, vertically forked tail (a shape known as hypocercal), with vertebrae extending into the longer, bottom lobe of the fork, making it look sort of like a boat’s rudder. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of flying fish: "two-wingers," whose two large pectoral fins comprise most of the flying "lift" surface and "four-wingers," which also have two enlarged pelvic fins in addition to the two long pectoral fins. There are about 40 species of flying fish, all of which tend to be cigar-shaped with long, wide pectoral fins on either side of their bodies.
0 kommentar(er)
