Early this dark, cold, soaking, rainy morning on my walk where I didn't see another Human being I was thinking. (Thats when I do most of my thinking, early in the morning, before the sun comes up when no one is around.)
I was thinking about fish and how they all look different while most of us Humans look very much alike. I for instance look very much like Matt Damon.
We could mistake an eel for a snake or a Lionfish for some sort of bird. Flying fish resemble butterflies. They are all different but we would never mistake a person for say an aardvark or Duck billed platypus. We would know it's a person even if she were hanging up side down from a tree.
Of course if we were at a distance we may mistake an Orangutan for one of our old girlfriends, especially if our old girlfriend had a bright red butt, very hairy legs ,
was a little promiscuous so she ran around in the dark and climbed trees naked, and sported an orange beard.
You may have made a good choice to break up with her when you did. But I digress.
Why are all fish so different looking from each other when all of us are basically the same looking. To a point of course.
I think fish evolved differently partly because of the "aquascape" where they lived, the predators they encountered and the fact that their lateral line needed to be designed to work in their particular situation.
I am not sure why eels have such a long lateral line because they are not really schooling fish and not really good swimmers. Maybe it's because of the tight holes they live in but I am guessing.
But why aren't all fish shaped like tuna. After all we design submarines in the shape of tunas because it's the most streamlined shape for moving through the water and a dog faced puffer fish shaped submarine would be expensive to fashion and when it inflated, hard to dock. I really don't know.
I also believe flat schooling fish are flat because that allows their lateral line to be positioned in such a way that it could be longer than the length of the fish. It starts at the head and curves way up to the dorsal fin, then back down to the tail instead of just going straight back like say a mackerel.
I know fish depend on their lateral line as much as a teenager depends on Facebook and couldn't live 5 minutes without it. A fish can get around perfectly in the dark or with one eye just by using their lateral line. There are many totally blind fish in caves and the deep sea that have no eyes and interestingly those fish also have no color and are a sickly gray.
That brings up another point. Why are tropical fish colorful and cold water fish mostly blah or have muted colors? I have no idea. Why are Royal Gramma's bright purple and yellow when they are a deep water fish and beyond about 30' deep the only color seen is blue?
Why are any fish colorful when the only time you can see those colors are near the surface?
Why are there no copperband butterflies in Florida? How do fish know not to eat colorful but poisonous nudibranchs?
Why are all invasive species ugly, poisonous and eat everything they get near? Why don't we have any invasive moorish Idols or winners of the show "Survivor"? (I have no idea who watches that or why it is still on. I mean after the first episode or two 20 years ago, it's kind of done.)
This is the main reason I walk early in the morning. These thoughts get stuck in my mind and I can't get them out or speak to normal people about them.
