Schooling behavior in Eocene fish

[RandyB]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/50-million-year-old-fossil-captures-swimming-school-fish

Avid fisherman here, so this one piqued my interest. Not sure I buy into the collapsing sand dune theory of how the fish were (mostly) preserved in swimming orientation, but I found the repulsion/attraction discussion intriguing as i have seen that behavior by menhadden countless times while fishing in the Atlantic.  Its easy to assume extinct animals acted similar to their modern cousins, but rare to see behavioral proof.

 

The abstract for the paper is here:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.0891

[jpc]

I have fish mortality plates form the same layer, some are random, some are unidirectional.  I think the sand dune is so incredibly wrong.  there is NOTHING n the geology that suggests sand dune.  

[Scylla]

Another story on same fossil

https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiQmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMTkvMDUvMjkvc2NpZW5jZS9mb3NzaWwtZmlzaC1zY2hvb2wuaHRtbNIBRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMTkvMDUvMjkvc2NpZW5jZS9mb3NzaWwtZmlzaC1zY2hvb2wuYW1wLmh0bWw?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

[Al Dente]

Quote from the article-  “I can’t picture a three-dimensional school of fish sinking to the bottom and maintaining all their relative positions,” Dr. Plotnick said. “That makes no sense to me.”

 

I think current alignment makes more sense.

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

4 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Quote from the article-  “I can’t picture a three-dimensional school of fish sinking to the bottom and maintaining all their relative positions,” Dr. Plotnick said. “That makes no sense to me.”

 

I think current alignment makes more sense.

 

 

I agree.

 

Don

[doushantuo]

rspb.2019.0891.pdf

Inferring collective behaviour from a fossilized fish shoal
Nobuaki Mizumoto, Shinya Miyata and Stephen C. Pratt

Proc. R. Soc. B 286:20190891.