Electric eels control their prey WITHOUT touching it: Creatures send shock waves to manipulate their targets muscles Creatures can send high voltage volleys that cause fish to have spasms Zaps hijack neural pathways of prey by mimicking their natural impulses Less powerful shocks produce twitches that can reveal a preys location Tests showed eels could detect these twitches through a gelatine barrier By Ellie Zolfagharifard for MailOnline and Press Association 4 December 2014 Electric eels use shocking tactics not just to incapacitate prey, but also control them, research has shown. The creatures vary their electrical discharges either to fire a single stunning zap, or high voltage volleys that cause fish to have massive involuntary muscle spasms. Another type of less powerful shock produces muscle twitches in prey that reveal their location to hunting eels. Scroll down for video Electric eels vary their electrical discharges either to fire a single stunning zap, or high voltage volleys that cause fish to have massive involuntary muscle spasms The electric eel is armed with muscle-derived biological batteries capable of generating a discharge of up to 600 volts. This is almost equivalent to the voltage created by the subway power system in New York. The eels are also known to use low-voltage electrical discharges as a kind of sonar to sense what is around them. Eel uses shocking tactics to control its prey with electricity Tests showed that eels were able to detect fish through a thin gelatine barrier by making them twitch. Discharges that stimulated involuntary muscle movements were closely followed by a full predatory strike. Pictured is an artists impression of what the electric waves would look like if they could be seen clearly ELECTRIC EELS AND THEIR SUPERCHARGED MUSCLES All muscle and nerve cells have electrical potential and a simple contraction of a muscle will release a small amount of voltage. Between 100 and 200 million years ago, some fish began to amplify that potential. They evolved electrocytes from muscle cells, which were organised in sequence and capable of generating much higher voltages. Today, the electric eel is capable of producing electric shocks of up to 600 volts. Despite its name, it is not closely related to true eels. It has a long, scale-free cylindrical body and a square moth at the end of its snout. Two organs, known as the Hunter’s organ and the Sach’s organ, give the fish its ability to generate electric discharges. When the eel spots prey, it opens the ion channels in these organs, reversing the polarity and creating an electric potential. This generates an electric current, which it uses to immobilise small prey. The shock, however, is not likely to be fatal to humans. Biologist Professor Kenneth Catania, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, conducted a series of experiments to investigate how the animals find and capture prey. The tests showed that eels were able to detect fish through a thin gelatine barrier by making them twitch. Multiple discharges that stimulated involuntary muscle movements were closely followed by a full predatory strike. Writing in the journal Science, Professor Catania said: Prey that have been detected can be immobilised and captured. Hidden prey can be induced to twitch, revealing their location. The twitching often triggered an escape response, but this was countered by stronger discharges that caused swimming muscles to freeze. Zaps of electricity hijacked the neural pathways of prey by mimicking the impulses that stimulate muscle movement. Overall, this study reveals that the electric eel has evolved a precise remote control mechanism for prey capture, one that takes advantage of an organisms own nervous system, said Professor Catania. The electric eel is armed with muscle-derived biological batteries capable of generating a discharge of up to 600 volts. This is almost equivalent to the voltage create by the subway power system in New York
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 08:34:52 +0000
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