World's Tiniest Vertebrate Found 37
foidulus writes "The BBC reports that American scientists have identified the world's tiniest fish living around Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It is also the tiniest animal with a backbone. The male of the stout infantfish is only about 7 mm(or less than 1/4 of an inch) long. It has a life span of only around 2 months which scientists say may be an advantage because it can evolve rapidly."
That's about the right size... (Score:5, Funny)
Have they tested the translation capabilities of these little critters?
Re:That's about the right size... (Score:1)
less than 1/4 of an inch ? (Score:2, Informative)
I would say just over a 1/4 of an inch
dumb ass reporter!
Oh no! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Redundant (Score:1)
Um, No ... (Score:3, Informative)
Doesn't being the tiniest fish imply being the tiniest invertebrate?
Given that fish are vertebrates I'm gonna go with NO!
SteveM
Re: Jumbo shrimp _not_ an oxymoron! (Score:2, Informative)
You clearly didn't get it so I'll try to explain it to you. "Shrimp" has entered the English language as a word meaning something that is exceptionally small, "jumbo" of course indicates the opposite extreme, thereby causing jumbo shrimp to be an oxymoron.
The stout infantfish however is much smaller than a shrimp (the species). In fact, a quick estimate indicates that a typical shrimp weighs 100 - 200 times more than the stout infantfish, making it "Jumbo" in compari
Re: Jumbo shrimp _not_ an oxymoron! (Score:2, Funny)
So I could make a post saying that "the Eiffel Tower is big", and then when somebody modded me off-topic, I could complain, saying that I made a joke, because the Eiffel Tower is big, but the stout infantfish is small, and there is a connection between them because fish is served in the Eiffel Tower restaurant, and that they "abused their power" by modding down a post whose on-topicality should have been obvious to everyone.
P.S. A list of acceptable HTML tags is displayed beneath the text box into wh
Could be tiniest sentient too (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Could be tiniest sentient too (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Could be tiniest sentient too (Score:1)
Re:Could be tiniest sentient too (Score:3, Funny)
In that case I guess most slashdot readers don't count either.
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What's that in the picture? (Score:2, Flamebait)
The areticle clearly states that the stout infantfish is ~7mm long. The picture shows a fish that is clearly 10mm long. Which makes me think that the picture they're actually showing is a picture of the world's second smallest fish, the goby fish.
Stupid beeb editor.
Re:What's that in the picture? (Score:2)
Re:What's that in the picture? (Score:4, Informative)
It's a picture of the stout infant fish, alright. Check out the Australian Museum Online site [amonline.net.au] for more information and pictures. I believe the picture shown is of a pregnant female [amonline.net.au], which as other posters have noted is larger than the male at a whopping 8.4mm.
Also, the length is likely the standard length [amonline.net.au], which is to say, it doesn't include the fleshy bit of the tail, but only up to the end of the spine.
One noteable difference from the dwarf goby fish [amonline.net.au] is that stout infant fish apparently lack pigmentation except in the eyes. The dwarf goby is a nice shade of orange.
Re:What's that in the picture? (Score:2)
Still, it seems ridiculous to loudly proclaim the discovery of the smallest vertebrate in the world and then show me a picture of an extra-large one.
Re:What's that in the picture? (Score:2)
Re:What's that in the picture? (Score:2)
not for fishing (Score:1, Offtopic)
Living long evolutionary disadvantage (Score:2)
*may* be an advantage? That's awfully certain. Not to mention that by this logic bacteria have a greater advantage over pretty much all other life, since they can "evolve" so rapidly. So, living longer lives is no longer an 'advantage'? The article itself says:
"It's interesting that these animals experience several generations a year," said Dr Watson. "This suggests they could evolve qu
Re:Living long evolutionary disadvantage (Score:3, Informative)
The way I've seen evolutionary biologists write about this, is that built in length of life is optimized differently for different situations/evol. niches.
For instance, it's quite expensive in energy to build bodies that can age (good cell repair, etc) so if the average time before an animal is eaten by a predator is sh
Addendum: The point :-) (Score:3, Informative)
the biologists probably don't know enough about the living situation for the fish to have more than hypotheses about why their generations are optimized like that.
So the researchers probably don't know yet.
(And yes, bacteria do evolve fast. That's why our immune system isn't based on DNA -- we have too long generations.)
These should be great for genetic experimentation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:These should be great for genetic experimentati (Score:1)
I remember in good old elementary school where we couldn't use vertebrates in experiments. (at least when it came to looking inside them or "treating" them to your new chemicals.)
My favorite tiny thing (Score:3, Informative)
Cool, I can add them to my "aquarium" at work... (Score:2)
Cool, I can add them to my aquarium [amazon.com] at work and my Sea-Monkeys [sea-monkeys.com] can have pets of their own !!!
Sea-Monkeys® are a true miracle of nature. They exist in suspended animation inside their tiny eggs for many years. The instant-life crystals, in which the eggs are enclosed, preserve their viability and help to extend still further their un-hatched life span! Sea-Monkeys are real Time-Travelers asleep in biological time capsules for their strange journey into the future!
Scientists call this amazing rar
Rapid Evolution (Score:2)
Another reason why the quest for eternal life is an evil one!
We're equipped for this world here and now... As much as I've love to experience the technological wonders of a world 3000 years from now, maybe I wouldn't be prepared for the variations in temperature, climate, or even social norms. Sure, I could adjust, but how well? This body was created specifically for life in the 21st century
All together now.. (Score:2)
Quick Evolution (Score:2)
It says these fix evolve quickly. Let us say there is a minor evolutionary change every five generations or so. That would be one year to have five changes. By the fifth change, there may be a marked difference between the new fish and the its great great grandmother/father.
My question is this. How long until the evolution creates a new species? Two years down the road, will you be comparing two sepa