Horrifying Images Reveal Bizarre Parasite That Replaces Tongue of Its Fish Host and Feeds on Blood

Horrifying Images Reveal Bizarre Parasite That Replaces Tongue of Its Fish Host and Feeds on Blood

Source: newsweek

8/12/2020

A biologist made an unexpected discovery while researching fish heads—a bizarre parasitic crustacean that replaces the tongue of its host.

Kory Evans from Rice University in Houston spotted the strange parasite in an image of the skull of a herring cale—a species of ray-finned fish endemic to the waters off Australia.

Evans was scanning the fish as part of an ongoing project to study the 3D skull shape of wrasses—a group of nearly 500 marine fish species—using a technique known as micro-computed tomography (micro-CT).

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"Micro-CT scanning is basically a 3D X-ray that allows researchers to visualize the internal anatomy of organisms without the need for dissection," Evans told Newsweek. "So far we've scanned nearly 200 species.

"To compare shapes between specimens I placed digital landmarks at different points along the skull to allow for detailed comparison. I found the parasite while trying to place digital landmarks inside the mouth cavity of the fish.