The fish that hunts on land; Catfish show how the first tetrapods might have caught dinner.
Michael Hopkin
The eel catfish, Channallabes apus, catches unsuspecting victims by arching upwards and descending upon prey, trapping an insect against the ground before sucking it up. It performs this trick thanks to a bendy neck supported by specialized vertebrae, which allows it to hover over prey without needing fins or arms to hold up its head.
The same trick may have been used by the very first vertebrates to venture onto land, the researchers speculate.
Tropical snapper
Sam Van Wassenbergh of the University of Antwerp in Belgium and his team present the observation, complete with video evidence, in this week's Nature1. The trick has never been recorded before, says Van Wassenbergh. "This catfish lives in a very inhospitable environment in the tropical swamps of Africa, where not many biologists pass by." ©2006 Nature Publishing Group
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