mudskipper
1
9.6
- noun
- /ˈmʌdˌskɪpər/
- The ability to leave the water has enabled the fish to exploit shallow mudflats, but for many mudskipper species, the watery burrow is still home base, from which it launches terrestrial forays and to which it retreats when threatened by predators.
- mudskipper species
Examples
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Specializations in their skin, mouth, and gill chambers allow mudskippers to breathe both in water and in air.
Academic text (2002) -
Although the aboveground activities of mudskippers first caught the attention of naturalists some 300 years ago, little is known about their behavior below the surface.
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Mudskippers' eyes are so well adapted to aerial vision that the fish see better above water than below it.
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Skipping and jumping across the shore at low tide, mudskippers give new meaning to the phrase "fish out of water."
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Mudskippers must somehow tolerate or overcome this oxygen shortage, not only for their own sake but for that of their developing eggs.
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From an evolutionary perspective, of course, mudskippers are very distantly related to the ancestral fishes that gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates.
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Beneath each eye is a water-filled cup formed from skin folds; as a mudskipper's eyes become dehydrated by exposure to the air, they can be retracted into this cup to be moistened.
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Widely gaping mouths and furry flared dorsal fins are sure signs that mudskippers are prepared to vigorously defend their mudflat territories.
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A mudskipper can often be seen basking on the wet sand during low tide, using its fins to move around.
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In tropical habitats, mudskippers thrive by hopping between puddles along the shore.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A fish that lives and moves in water and on land, like a mudskipper
A fish from Africa and Asian coasts that uses strong front fins to move on mud and breathe air
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Mudskipper is a straightforward English compound of mud and skipper, where skip means 'to jump or move quickly'. So a mudskipper is like a 'jumper in the mud', which fits this small fish that hops across muddy shores and can live both in water and on land.