Look who’s talking now: The fishes! Widespread sound communication among fish

There is a lot of talking going on beneath the waves. Some fish have been communicating with sound for at least 155 million years, according to a new study from Cornell University. The journal Ichthyology published these findings.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has known for a long time that fish make sounds. We wanted to know if these were one-offs or if there was a broader pattern for acoustic communication in fishes.

The authors looked at a branch of fishes. 99% of the world's known species of fishes are vertebrates. Two-thirds of fish species are likely to communicate with sound in 175 families. The study authors found that sound evolved at least 33 times over millions of years in the fish family tree.

Thanks to decades of basic research on the evolutionary relationships of fishes, we can now explore many questions about how different functions and behaviors evolved in the approximately 35,000 known species of fishes. We can learn more about the drivers of sound communication and how it continues to evolve.

Existing recordings, scientific papers, and 19th century literature were used by the scientists to gather information on fish sounds, their bones, and muscles.

Andrew Bass is a co-lead author of the study and the Horace White Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences. But fishes have voices as well.

What are the fish talking about? Sex and food are the same topics. Rice says the fish are either trying to attract a mate, defend a food source or let others know where they are. Some of the common names for fish are based on the sounds they make, such as grunts, croakers, hog fish, squeaking catfish, and many more.

Rice began the project 20 years ago with the help of co-authors Philip Lobel and Ingrid Kaatz. Since Rice came to Cornell, their collaboration has expanded.

Rice said that this introduces sound communication to so many more groups. At this point, nothing would surprise me about fishes and their sounds.

The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Tontogany Creek Fund, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology funded the research.

The story was told

The materials are provided by Cornell University. Pat Leonard wrote the original for the Cornell Chronicle. Content can be edited for style and length.