#bichirs

[picturesoffishandotherthings]

Low quality of my two bichirs again.

I've had them for over 15 years now.

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Fish

Polypteridae. This order is made up of reedfish and bichirs, freshwater fish that have lungs, with some species capable of breathing air.

Acipenseriformes. This order is made up of basal fishes with skeletons made mostly of cartilage. It includes sturgeons and paddlefish.

Which clade of animals is better?

Polypteridae

Acipenseriformes

Show results

Voting ended onApr 17, 2024

[fishstims]

fluvalaquatics on instagram

[etariptra]

I’ve been thinking about mermaids recently—for no particular reason—and I was thinking, as one does, about the biology and evolutionary pressures that would cause mermaids to evolve. And I was watching something on ray-finned fish a couple weeks ago and thought, “hmmm, what if mermaids were ray-finned fish?” Which led me down the rabbit hole of a type of fish native to the Nile, bichirs (Polypterus), they are what one might call a “living fossil”. They have “primitive” lungs, and they can “walk” with their strong pectoral fins. So I thought maybe this air breathing, land crawling fish could be a good candidate for what mermaids could evolve from. Anyway, here’s a bichir mermaid.

[antiqueanimals]

Animal Oddities, 1969.

[lovingexotics]

Barred Bichir Polypterus delhezi Source: Here

[kougie]

Bichir buddies!

[toyteelinis]

Update: an?? Angel???