VOA慢速英语2015 Fish Use Whole Bodies When They Eat

Fish Use Whole Bodies When They Eat

Fish are animals that live in the water. They are also vertebrates – animals that have a backbone¹ and a spine².  They have gills that permit them to take oxygen from the water. But have you ever wondered how vertebrates eat food? Now researchers at Brown University have x-ray video that shows the action in great detail.

Many fish are power eaters. Bass³, for example, can eat goldfish in one big swallow. Thomas Roberts is a biology professor at Brown University.  He and his co-workers used new tools to record the fish’s movements as it ate.

"And those tools were a combination of high speed x-ray videos combined with CT measurements of the bones of the skull⁴ in the bass and pressure probe measurements of the pressure in the water during suction feeding."

Thomas Roberts says the muscles in the head are not powerful enough to create that suction. He says they must work together with the body muscles used for swimming. Scientists had suspected this cooperation in the past, but, until now, they had no proof.  

"Fish actually have to use this incredible linkages⁵ of skull bones to pull power from the body muscles to generate the really rapid motion in the head and generate suction to pull in prey⁶."  

The finding is important to understand how not only bass, but some 30,000 species of water vertebrates evolved. Thomas Roberts explains.

"So this tells us that this clever co-opting of swimming muscles to produce a feeding motion maybe was really important for the evolutionary⁷ success of bony fishes."

The study was published in the Proceedings⁸ of the National Academy of Sciences.

Words in This Story

swallow – n. taking something into your stomach through your mouth and throat

suction – n. the act or process of grasping something

incredible – adj. difficult or impossible to believe

generate – v. to produce (something) or cause (something) to be produced

rapid – adj. happening in a short amount of time

prey – n. an animal that is hunted or killed by another animal for food

clever – adj. intelligent and able to learn things quickly

co-opt – v. to cause or force something to work with something

1 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

2 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

3 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

4 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

5 linkages   

n.连接( linkage的名词复数 )；结合；联系；联动装置

参考例句：

• Only the thermosetting resins provide a strong cohesive forces; this is due to molecular cross linkages. 只有热固性树脂具有巨大的凝聚力，这是由于分子交错链所造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The linkages between the stable units must be as near as possible of equal stability. 稳定链节之间的键必须有尽可能接近的稳定性。 来自辞典例句

6 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

7 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

8 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼