Sea robins are peculiar bottom-dwelling ocean fish. Its fins resemble the feathery wings of a bird and have six leglike extensions, three on each side.
The appendages are used for walking on the seafloor and digging up prey, according to two studies of the fish co-authored by David Kingsley, a biology professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, and recently published in the journal Current Biology.
“The sea robins on display completely spun my head around because they had the body of a fish, the wings of a bird, and multiple legs like a crab,” Kingsley said in an email, recalling his first time encounter with the fish at a small public aquarium in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 2016, CNN reported.
“I’d never seen a fish that looked like it was made of body parts from many different types of animals.”
The digging type sea robins, the researchers observed, had shovel-shaped legs that were covered in protrusions called papillae, which are similar to the taste buds on our tongues. Such legs allow sea robins to sense and dig up prey from the sand, with other fish following them around in the hope of snagging the catch, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, New York subway commuters have been treated to a rare sight of another marine creature last week. Someone videoed the arthropods tumbling out of a woman’s broken bag and causing a commotion. Titled “SubwayCreatures,” the video clip went viral on Instagram, drawing 18 million viewers in three days, the Independent reported.
The video opens with a man in the opposite row calmly holding one of the crabs that escaped from the woman’s ripped bag, according to Independent.
Other passengers helped grab escaping crabs and gave the woman new plastic bags.