After flying fish flies out of the water, it needs to immediately spread its long and wide pectoral fins and glide into the sea breeze at a speed of about fifteen meters per second.
If the wind is right, flying fish can fly more than 400 meters in the air at a low altitude of four or five meters above the water surface.
When the flying fish returns to the water, if it needs to take off again, it will use its tail to slap the waves before its whole body enters the water to increase the power of gliding, allowing it to jump out of the water again and continue its short gliding flight.
Obviously, during the entire flying process of the flying fish, the wings do not actually flap at all, but it only relies on the propulsion of the tail to glide briefly in the air.
Scientists once conducted an experiment in which they cut off the tail fin of a flying fish, leaving its long pectoral fins, and released it back into the sea. Since flying fish do not have well-developed pectoral muscles like birds and cannot flap their wings, the flying fish with its tail fin cut off could never again take off into the air.
"Speaking of which, the wings of flying fish may have degenerated over a long period of time. In the earliest times, flying fish could actually fly." Xiang Yang suddenly said.
"Why are you suddenly saying this?" Chen Qingsheng asked puzzledly.
Xiang Yang pointed ahead and said, "Look there."
Chen Qingsheng took out his telescope and looked carefully for a while, then turned his head in surprise, "Is that a flying fish?"
"Yes, it's all flying fish."
Xiang Yang recalled carefully for a while, and then said: "Researchers in our country have discovered a flying fish fossil in Guizhou. It can be traced back to about 240 million years ago. It is the oldest flying fish fossil known to date."
"Can that fossil fly?" Fang Youqun asked.
Xiang Yang shook his head. "The flying fish fossils discovered by researchers from the Academy of Sciences and other institutions in Guizhou Province have a physiological structure very similar to today's flying fish. It also has broad pectoral fins on both sides of the chest as main wings, and a pair of smaller fins on the abdomen that can be used as auxiliary wings when gliding."
The reason why Xiang Yang said that the ancient flying fish could fly was because the tail fin of the flying fish fossil discovered was asymmetrical.
Today's flying fish have two tail fins of similar size and are symmetrically distributed, but the two tail fins of that flying fish were not symmetrical, and the lower one was much larger, which could help them gain greater thrust when jumping out of the water.
The dating results of these flying fish fossils show that they lived about 240 million years ago, belonging to the Middle Triassic period.
The oldest flying fish fossils discovered previously date back to about 200 million years ago, belonging to the late Triassic period, and were found in Italy and Austria.
Therefore, these fossils discovered in our country are the oldest flying fish fossils known to date.
Some researchers have said that the ancient flying fish could reach a length of 20 centimeters, and after jumping out of the water, they could glide in the air dozens of meters farther than today's flying fish.
This discovery is of great significance for the study of ancient ecosystem changes.
Because about 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic period, the Earth experienced a severe mass extinction event, when more than 90 percent of marine life died.
But the flying fish appeared soon afterwards, indicating that the ocean was already rich in species at the time and that the ecosystem may have recovered from this mass extinction faster than previously thought.
"Nature is truly amazing. Fish can actually fly." Fang Youqun stared at the group of flying fish through the telescope and marveled.
Xiang Yang smiled and said, "Fish swim in the water, birds fly in the sky. For many people, this is indeed a common rule for animals to live in. However, just as there are birds that cannot fly, there are also fish that are brave enough to jump out of the water and fly in the sky."
"Which species of flying fish is this? I don't think I've seen this kind of flying fish before." Chen Qingsheng asked Xiang Yang.
Xiang Yang shook his head. "It's too far away. I can't see clearly."
Although any fish that can fly can be called a flying fish, the flying fish we usually refer to are members of the entire flying fish family.
But in fact, under this flying fish family, there are a total of nine genera, and there are dozens of valid species. In the coastal areas of my country alone, there are many different types of flying fish, such as the Ago flying fish, the single-beard flying fish, and the soaring flying fish.
As for the entire flying fish family, they are spread across all the oceans of the world. It can be said that they are a large and powerful fish race.
Flying fish are different from the ferocious marine predators Xiang Yang had encountered before.
Small flying fish mainly feed on zooplankton and live mainly in surface waters.
As the saying goes, big fish eat small fish, smaller fish eat shrimps, the smaller flying fish can be said to be the prey of all marine predators including tuna, swordfish, dolphins, and even squid and seabirds.
In the face of such powerful enemies, the flying fish was able to evolve the ability to fly. This is actually a reflection of the survival of the fittest in natural selection. The flying skill can help the flying fish quickly escape from the mouths of their natural enemies.
As for the specific flying ability of flying fish, different types of flying fish perform differently in different situations.
The longest known record for a flying fish remaining aloft is forty-five seconds, recorded by a Dongyi television crew in 2008.
In terms of flight distance, under normal circumstances, the average flight distance of flying fish is about 100 meters, but in extreme cases with the help of wind or waves, some flying fish can successfully fly a distance of 400 meters.
As for the flying height of flying fish, although many people have the impression that flying fish fly close to the water surface, there are actually many species of flying fish that can glide at a height of six meters above the sea surface.
Although flying fish are one of the creatures at the bottom of the entire marine food chain thanks to their ability to fly, currently all members of the Flying Fish family are basically not in any crisis of survival.
After hearing this, Fang Youqun was quite moved and said, "It turns out that fish can fly not only in fairy tales, but there are actually real flying fish in the sea."
"Not only is it not a fairy tale, it's also very cruel. In the real world, the flying of flying fish is just a means of escape when forced into a desperate situation." Xiang Yang shook his head.
At this point, Xiang Yang suddenly laughed, "In fact, the first time I knew about flying fish was also in a science fiction comic."
When Xiang Yang was a child, he saw an episode in the comic book "Doraemon" where Suneo was feeding koi at home and mercilessly mocked Nobita: "Your house is so small that you don't even have a pond. You can't afford to raise koi, right?"
Nobita returned home and cried loudly while hugging Doraemon.
Doraemon suddenly had an idea. If there was no pond, then he could raise the fish in the air. So he took out a bag of fish food from his pocket and scattered it into the sea. A magical scene happened. The fish in the sea jumped up and rushed into the sky like birds...