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Surprise: Fish in acidic waters grow bigger ears

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2009 at 6:13 am

From the Associated Press:

Listen up! Carbon dioxide being absorbed by the oceans is having a puzzling effect on fish — their ears get bigger.

Now, that doesn’t mean you’re going to reel in the Mr. Spock of the sea. Fish ears are inside their bodies. But, as in humans, their ears perform a major role in sensing movement and whether the animal is upright — abilities that are important for survival.

“It was a surprise,” biological oceanographer David M. Checkley of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said of the discovery. “The assumption is that anything that departs significantly from normality is an abnormality, and abnormalities at least have the potential for having deleterious effects,” Checkley said.

Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here. Even more from the Scientific American by clicking here.

June 26, 2009 · Filed Under Water & Wildlife

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