And You Thought The Beach Was Safe

This tickled my fancy:

In 2018, on the Red Sea’s Mar Mar Island, Matthew Tietbohl, a coral reef ecologist at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Saudi Arabia, was surveying a beach for sea turtle tracks with some colleagues. The team heard loud splashing at the water’s edge.

“We turned to see this triggerfish launching itself into the shallows and stranding itself,” recounts Tietbohl.

It soon became clear that the fish was attempting to feed on ghost crabs that were grazing on algae-covered rocks at the water’s edge. The triggerfish would slowly stalk the crabs from the water, turning on its side and lunging out of the shallows like a crocodile. At one point, the fish successfully gripped a crab, pulling it back into the water. [NewScientist]

I feel like we’re seeing evolution in action.

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About Hue White

Former BBS operator; software engineer; cat lackey.

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