Fish GPS? Scientists find goldfish go farther next to certain stripes

Fish GPS? Scientists find goldfish go farther next to certain stripes

Source: theguardian

10/12/2022

Credit: Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images

Goldfish may spend most of their time swimming up and down a glass tank but researchers have found they have a sophisticated navigation system that allows them to estimate distance.

While researchers have previously shown a wide array of fish can navigate efficiently, questions remained about the mechanisms involved. Understanding those, scientists say, could help shed light on whether similar brain cells are involved in the internal GPS of the human brain.

“We want to know where are those cells appearing on the evolutionary tree,” said Dr Adelaide Sibeaux, of the University of Oxford, who is first author of the latest research.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Sibeaux and colleagues report how they created a tank with 2cm-wide black and white vertical stripes on the walls, connected by similar stripes across the floor.