Toadfish live in the tidal shallows of the US Gulf states and are so ugly their mothers promptly abandon them at birth. Turns out toadfish dudes have a sweet song for bringing the ladies around. Never mind what happens when she faces the music.
Rumours still persist that George Lucas modelled the repulsive Jabba The Hut on the toadfish's good side. So imagine what these guys are up against in getting a mate.Especially as the females are notoriously picky, Thankfully not so much about the looks as about the tune the boy can sing.
Very often in nature, a homely critter will be blessed with heavenly pipes, as if to compensate. This is not one of those.The song of the toadfish is more Ozzy than Kanye although given the low range of their grunts, there jjust might be some Barry White in the mix.
Gulf toadfish build their nests in shallow waters along the southeastern and Gulf coasts of the United States and their gruesome appearance works to keep them from harm. It's also said to make the area's many elderly residents feel better about themselves.
Nonetheless, the toadfish is one of few of its kind known to have vocal skills and researchers are exploring how their nervous system produces sounds. This allows for tracing the earliest developments of vocalization in other animals, including people.
Which in turn could generate new applications in fields as varied as linguistics, speech therapy and on-site trauma treatment.
Due to better media exposure, everyone's familiar with the songs of whales and dolphins so tend to forget that fish make sounds too and some like the toadfish, bust fairly complex beats.
This is apparently due to the dearth of knowledge regarding the ancient networks of neurons and nerve cells in the fish brain, laid down millions of years before our own.
Many animals communicate vocally, and comparing the nerve networks in a variety of vertebrates suggests that making sounds originated in ancient fishes.
While researchers agree their material isn't as complex as your average punk band, the toadfish have a fully developed sound.
Researchers have even isolated the area in the hindbrain in the larvae of midshipmanfish and toadfish, programmed to produce more than one type of sound.
And the one which gets the females comin' round the nest? It's described as a bass toned hum, the drone of bees round a honey hive or a motor running.
Sounds like good ol' rock'n'roll, with much the same end game.
Now will someone get out there and rip that toadfish sound?
Meet Toadfish: Looks Like Jabba The Hut, Sounds LIke Barry White
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