Baby Whale (Brienomyrus brachyistius) | 水產百科網

2014年12月18日—ThespeciescontrollingtheselightsisBrienomyrusbrachyistius,aspeciesofelephantfishfoundinWestandCentralAfrica,fromthe ...

For many Europeans and North Americans, December brings out the festive traditions of the Christmas tree[1] or tannenbaum, where evergreen trees often get decorated with electric lights, glowing and twinkling away into the night.

And at one researcher’s lab, fish are lending a hand in the tree lighting.

Professor Jason Gallant of Michigan State University[2] studies a strange-looking group of fishes from African rivers called elephantfishes. Gallant keeps a few species of elephantfish at his laboratory[3], and recently turned over the light controls of his lab’s Christmas tree to these fish—which have the ability to produce electrical signals:

The species controlling these lights is Brienomyrus brachyistius, a species of elephantfish found in West and Central Africa, from the Democratic Republic of Congo north to Gambia.

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