When one thinks of the word fish they think of something that lives in the water, swims around with fins, and has gills. When one thinks of a frog they think of an amphibian, which has a long tongue to catch insects. Has anyone ever thought of the two together? Probably not. It’s an interesting conception to think of a frog and a fish together. Are they really something that was put together or is it an animal that has similar features of both creatures?
Off the coast of an Indonesia Island divers found an interesting look fish. It hoped, crawled, and swam. It was something they had never seen before. The divers took pictures of the fish and sent them to fish expert Ted Pietsch of forty years. After examining the pictures carefully Pietsch came to the conclusions that the fish was unnamed. He went into his collection and compared it to pictures he had from 2008. They were the same fish species that was not known. He said that it was a frogfish but a new species of it. He named the new species Histiophryne psychedelica, or psychedelica for short. The psychedelica is about four inches long, with swirls and stripes like a tiger. The fish hops along the coral reef by squirting jets of water out from itself. This gives it the appearance of it hoping rather than swimming. This is the first frogfish that has been seen to hop. They crawl by using their fins. Their fins look and work like legs which explain why they like to crawl along the reef rather than swim. With these two features the fish gets into a rhythm of crawl-hop-crawl-hop. Another interesting aspect that applies only to this creature is that it has eyes that face forward. On a fish the face is pointed and angled. They have two eyes on either side of their face. The frogfish has a flat face with eyes directly on it just like a human. A lot of fish that live on the reef have camouflage to protect them. The psychedelica does not change even though the known frogfish does. Its color and design stays with them no matter what.
What’s interesting about the psychedelica is that there have been pictures of it from years ago. At time no one knew what it was and the pictures were put to the side. Looking back at his photos, Pietsch found pictures sent from the Dallas Aquarium with pictures of the fish he just named. Those pictures were taken about seventeen years ago.
I chose this article because I always found the ocean fascinating. There are so many creatures that have yet to be discovered because we do not have the technology of going all the way to the bottom of the ocean. I could bring this into the classroom to teach science by asking students to use their imagination. I could ask them to draw something they believe is in the ocean but has not yet been discovered. We can go through the different levels of the ocean and what is known about what lives there. This topic can open a big discussion that will allow students to get involved.
The Psychedlica in Action!
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