According to the theory of many scientists, life began in a pool of water. Then some day, a creature crawled out of the ocean and decided to explore the dry surface of the earth. Somehow, us humans evolved from this creature and every time I think about this, my mind gets blown away. And yet there are still fish species today that are known for doing what at some point in our planet’s history led to the existence of land animals: walking.
Aren’t fish supposed to swim? Well, not the following fish species I’m going to introduce to you. Indeed, there are fish that use their pectoral fins to walk on the ocean floor or crawl on land near shallow waters. While species like the lizardfish or the toadfish, that are known for living on the ocean floor and moving forward in a kind of walking or crawling way, admittedly live in the ocean and would never touch dry land, there are still some fish species that do periodically live on land.
One of these interesting little fellows is the mudskipper, an amphibious fish that is known as the best land-adapted fish species. Although it is called a walking fish, this little guy’s movements have little to do with walking. Instead it moves in a jerky way by supporting itself on the extended edges of its gill plates and pushing itself by its fins and tail. Surprisingly this fish can survive on land for several hours, which makes it a very extraordinary species and extremely interesting for scientists.
Another extremely fascinating species is the African lungfish. As the name already gives away, it possesses two or one lung, which enables it to survive in dry phases. Amazing.
