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Re: My what sharp sub- ocular spines you have

Posted By: Iris <Iris6@aol.com>
Date: Friday, 25 February 2000, at 3:38 a.m.

In Response To: Re: My what sharp sub- ocular spines you have (Mike Ophir)

I'm going to point out that the spines seem to be barbed in a jagged way - which is why when Martin got stuck, the modesta actually hung on to Martin's hand with the spine. Getting the fish to let go was probably similar to removing a fish hook (oooh! what an idea! revenge of the fish...) and he bled like hell.

To speculate freely, perhaps at one time such a design *did* develop for catching food - it sure caught Martin! However, the disadvantage is in the location of the spines, so botias probably had a fair share of incidents where the spines were ripped out, to the detriment of the botia. So, surviving botias would be those who developed other means of catching food, and the spines became somewhat vestgial. They didn't disappear entirely, because of the defense advantage.

How's that for free wandering speculation, BB!

Iris
 

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