On September 7, in fresh footage from the South China Sea scientists showed an unusual armored sea robin Scalicus engyceros, which uses special fin rays like little legs and is capable of walking along the bottom backwards and sideways.
We are talking about the armored sea robin Scalicus engyceros. It uses the rigid rays of its pectoral fins like little legs and can move along the substrate forward, sideways, and even backwards.
It is precisely the backward movement that especially surprised researchers. Previously, such behavior was assumed based on the fish's anatomy, but now it has been well documented in its natural environment.
The footage was obtained using deep-sea vehicles at depths of approximately 350β500 meters.
The sea robin has bony plates, wide pectoral fins, and sensitive appendages with which it probes the bottom in search of food. When necessary, the fish can abruptly change direction and even leap above the substrate.
But what attracted the most attention was precisely its "underwater moonwalk".
From the outside, it all looks roughly like this:
β Are you a fish?
β Yes.
β Then why aren't you swimming?
β I don't want to. I'm walking.
And indeed she walked. Backwards, at that.
So now science has an answer to a question that humanity, most likely, never asked:
can a fish do the moonwalk?
Apparently, it can.
And it does so at a depth of about 400 meters, where almost no one sees it. π In the video, it strongly resembles an underwater moonwalk. So humanity finally has an answer to a question no one asked: can a fish do Michael Jackson? Apparently, yes. π
