Musical Scales

The quest to document an ancient sea creature reveals a cyclical chorus of fish songs.

kerry grens
| 4 min read

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ANDRZEJ KRAUZE

Several years ago, ichthyologist Eric Parmentier met a French marine biologist and filmmaker, Laurent Ballesta, who was organizing an expedition to South Africa to produce a documentary film on the coelacanth. This ancient fish—one whose fossil record dates back at least 350 million years—has an almost mythical legacy. Although it was widely assumed to have gone extinct 65 million years ago, a live specimen was found in 1938, and scientists have identified two extant species of coelacanth. Both species move in a peculiar way, waggling four lobe-like fins in an alternating pattern, as we do our arms and legs. Their anatomy is also unusual: a tiny brain, a joint at the back of the head that allows the animal to open its jaws widely, and ...

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Meet the Author

  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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