Elephant Nose Fish It looks like it might be a bottle nose...

[The Librarian]

Elephant Nose Fish
It looks like it might be a bottle nose dolphin. But no this amazing fish is one of a kind. First of all, that’s not its nose—it’s actually an elongated chin. The scientific term for this specialized organ is the Schnauzenorgan, and it’s covered in sensors attuned to detecting electric fields. The elephantnose fish belongs to a group of electric fish native to Africa. Due to its poor eyesight, it must find food and navigate its surroundings by generating an electrical field through its tail. It then senses any changes to that field with its Schnauzenorgan. The organ is so sensitive that the elephantnose fish can tell the difference between living and dead bugs buried up to 0.8 inches (two centimeters) in the seafloor. They can also use the Schnauzenorgan to determine distances and distinguish between materials, shapes, and sizes of objects. Elephantnose fish also have an enormous brain relative to their body size, and von der Emde says the fish are very intelligent, easily learning new tasks and capable of understanding abstract concepts. “When ‘bored,’ they play with objects such as stones, air bubbles, or tubes that we put in their tanks,” he says.

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