@@groundon462 ah yes, I watch every episode on RUclips. I even watched the animated kids series where they reused the same creatures from the speculative document.
afraid flight is too energy demanding for this to work, we might see an atmospheric breathing system of sorts emerging though- still unlikely as the more primitive hearts and nervous system would likely prohibit such transition
Well.... whether it is aero or hydro, they're both just fluid dynamics related topics. The main difference is the medium........ and uh, that one kills you if you don't go fast enough so you crash while the other kills you if you go too deep (contrary to popular belief, this is not because of the pressure crushing your submarine but because you're being devoured by Cthulhu #SciFacts).
Plenty of times actually, and it doesn't stop on fish either. I've heard of aerodynamic sharks (ok a type of fish), dolphins, seals, polar bears, tadpoles... you get the picture.
@ariannasv22 ; "According to the legend, carps that leap over a legendary waterfall, referred to as the Dragon Gate, are transformed into dragons." That is why Magikarp "evolves" into Gyarados in Pokemon.
The issue with the concept of the "Flish" is not only the fact that birds already occupy that niche - the more significant problem is breathing. Active flying requires way too much oxygen to do a reverse marine mammals and just frequently dive into the water and store it. It's questionable if it's possible to develop lungs and body structures sophisticated enough for flight in an oceanic habitat.
@@Raison_d-etre There's also fish that have lungs and/or specialised gills that can survive for long periods of time out of water. With enough time and the right circumstances who knows what might evolve from the fish species that are around today.
First of all, if you watch 'The Future is Wild', they explain that Flish only evolved after the extinct of birds (also mentioned at 8:46). Second, modern oceanic ray-finned fish actually possess a swim bladder that were originally lungs in the freshwater ancestors of most of the modern forms, which were some of the few types of fish left over after the Late Devonian Mass Extinction obliterated the gigantic placoderms, which lacked primitive lungs. In many ray-finned fish today, such as the tarpon, this organ has been re-adapted to be used by them as a simple lung too. Also, many species of eel, like the electric eel, are able to make forays onto the land because their mouths and gums are highly vascularized, with lots of blood vessels quite close to the external environment. Additionally, some fish can breathe air by absorbing it through their skin, and a few have even evolved a labyrinthine system of ducts of gulp air. Third, I would argue that the fins of fish can be easily adapted to become highly dextrous, allowing the whole organ to change shape, as would be required for flight. Examples of this range to the modern frogfish to the prehistoric Tiktaalik, which could literally use its fins to do a push-up. Walking catfish can even use their fins to help them wriggle across dry land. By improving the dexterity of their fins, creatures like flying fish could use their gliding to not only escape predators better, but also to sneak on prey from above. Fourth, the book version of 'The Future is Wild' details that Flish have specialized oils lighter-than-water oils (also possessed by sharks) in their bodies along with specialized hollow scales that allow them to float in between glides. Fifth, if the fish evolved in shallow water, perhaps with a lower oxygen content, that filled dramatically with great expanses of water at one time of year and then become muddy and treacherous at another time of the year, it could kill two birds with one stone by developing stronger fins to maneuver through these tighter conditions but also glide when water levels are higher. This could be particularly important in an environment like that that is described in 'The Future is Wild' as being where Flish evolved, after a great future mass extinction killed off almost all life. In these sheltered environments, perhaps mangrove swamps or analogous regions, opportunists could gain a foothold. This also ties in some things the video mentions at about 9:15.
@@andrewkawam2603 I didn't argue it's impossible, just significantly less likely compared to terrestrial animals. Happened three times with vertebrates alone after all.
@@andrewkawam2603 there is also a problem that if birds did kick the bucket, this leaves the skies free for insects and bats to take over. Flying sea creatures would also be more free to take to the skies but they won't be the only ones.
No one is safe from extinction, birds don’t have to go extinct for fish to gain flight. Birds developed while pterosaurs were still thriving, and bats while birds were still flying. I see no reason for fish to begin flying in a couple million years and carve out new niches whether or not birds go extinct.
fly fish are distributed all over the tropics and even parts of subtropics, i think they have time to improve. i hope they develop an adaptation against avians, like upright eyes. they can already greatly sense predators ambushing bellow em, they just got to be weary of above.
Fish dont dominate the ocea, i see flying being predators in similar behaviur to dolphins except the glide above the water and going in to hunt or get prey
Id imagine just the behaviour of jumping out of water when danger was around helped individuals survive over those that didnt. And perhaps predators would trying snatch some as they left the water which then allowed individuals who traveled further to survive. Nature is amazing
I’m an aquarium hobbyist. I’ve kept and bred African Butterflyfish in the past. I can tell you for certain that their instinct is to DIVE in reaction to threats from both above and below. They only jump to catch insects mid-air. I think I still have a very detailed post of my observations and experiments about the widespread misconception that butterflyfish jumps to avoid danger out there somewhere in a hobbyist forum. Unless the wild varieties of this fish behave exactly the opposite to their captive counterparts (which I seriously doubt), your source is wrong mate.
Like I said I did find some conflicting sources concerning their behaviours, so it's interesting to know that they are actually false anyway. Thank you for correcting me, and here's the source I found stating they're 'ballistic jumpers': www.fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=2075&AT=freshwater+butterflyfish
I've been on a ferry (small vehicle ferry) in the Philippines between Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, and seen flying fish flying out from in front of the boat and directly away, almost all in approx 30 degree spread aligned with the boat's direction. Looked like escape. Couldn't see any insects on the surface or in the air.
And flying fish actually evolved to avoid predators through flying, butterfly fish have a limited surface area thats why they use their wings to catch prey not to mention their habitat are full of insects, i dont think ocean have alot of insects.
I currently have a few freshwater hatchetfish in my aquarium and usually they will swim down when threatened. They will jump if startled though, or to catch a fruit fly.
I think that without the pressures of predation, the flying fish would loose its need to spend energy flying or growing adaptations for flight. since their large, intelligent predators like dolphins and marlin are gradually decreasing in numbers do to pressures from human activity, eventually the flying fish will loose their ability to even jump out of the water. if you took the fish to a new hypothetical planet where everything was the same except no human activity on wild systems, they would eventually learn to actually fly, maybe. but it sounds like what is most useful to them is just skirting above the water, so they might not need to actually take off. if this hypothetical world lost its aerial predators, the flish might evolve to fill that niche, but it would take a lot of energy to learn to fly: so there would need to be a real pressure to force them to leave the water.
Thanks for this video, seriously fascinating topic. Maybe those flish would still require water to breath, like how whales and dolphins breath air like their ancient ancestors
Gary Meaney That is true but for these fish there seems to be not that much of anatural selection factor that would require them to suddenly evolve air breathing (unless there is, do tell me) I feel like if they do evolve powered flight, there’d be a period where they develop to be flying pseudo-amphibians, where water is necessary for breathing and breeding, perhaps they won’t be able to stray to far away from the water. Then I’m assuming evolution will take its course and air breathing lineages will evolve.
The thing is, marine mammels haven't kept breathing because they can't re-evolve gills. They've done it because breathing air is an advantage for them. They'd loose lots of heat through gills, and they'd be restricted to only as much oxygen as is disolved in the water. Air breathing allows even large mammels with energetic lifestyles to live in cold waters with limited oxygen, and be more energetic in general. Flish would gain nothing by keeping gills on the other hand, and stand to gain a lot by evolving lungs. Since the evolution of lungs by fish has occured more than once, we should expect flish to do so once they start spending a lot of time out of the water. In fact, air breathing is probably neccassary to provide enough oxygen for sustained powered flight.
Great video. I have always found flying fish to be fascinating creatures, but I never did any research into them. Your video taught me more in 15 minutes than I have learned about them in my entire life.
I've long thought that flying fish were among the most fascinating kinds of fish. But you somehow still managed to make them so much more interesting than I could have imagined. Well done
This was a very interesting and informative video. Thank you! Also, that pic of a flying halfbeak was awesome, thanks for posting it, I had no idea there were flying fish outside Exocoetidae.
I first saw one when I was 21 and was quite taken aback, questioning if I’d really seen a flying fish. A few years ago I was on a cruise and saw them all the time. I loved sitting out on the balcony and watching them. It was awesome.
Concerning "The Future Is Wild" bird fish, convergent evolution has created swimming, walking, burrowing, and flying across many groups, so a truly flying fish is not beyond possibilities if the environment encourages it. Penguins (fish bird) swim. I intuitively find the book and series dubious.
Considering that some animals breath air but live in the water, it could be possible for the flish to live in the air but need to go down every so often to the water in order to breath. The question would be: what adaptations would allow them to absorb enough oxygen in short dives? and whether those adaptations are more likely than those needed to breath air
I went deep sea fishing once, and an entire school of flying fish flew over our boat. Hundreds of them. All you could hear was the slapping of their little wing fins, and it felt like it was lightly raining for a moment from the water coming off them. Pretty amazing experience.
i believe Flish will fly one day, maybe not with look of what was shown but i do like like the thought. why could the flish not still dwell in the water and still use the sky, so that they can feed in the deep and the air?!
I see these nearly everytime I go out into the deepwater fishing (20kms offshore) and I never get bored with watching them. There colour is just stunning.., ours is the bright electric blue species and we always take these as a good sign that the fishing will be good.
The Exocet French-built anti-ship missile takes its name from the flying fish. Flying fish is Exocet in French. Exocet missiles fly low like flight fishes. With sea skimming can be hardly detected by radars. Exocet did good job during the Falkland war.
Amazing as always, great video. Thank you for your hard work and research! I absolutely love this kind of historical to speculative future video. Keep up the good work! 😄
Flying Fish: *fly to escape predators* Birds: I'm about to end this whole species' careers Edit: someone beat me to it. On a different note, there's at least one group of unrelated prehistoric flying fish
I saw Flying Fish recently while on a cruise. I knew they were around, but I never thought I’d get to see them in the Wild. So awesome! I was also surprised by how frequently I would spot them over the week that I was at sea.
A lot of great info that I've been looking for here. These notes are gonna come in handy. If you'd like to dive into sea cucumbers, there's an equally large void of researchable info about them as well.. Love what you do. Thanks for all your efforts.
@@richardputz3233 I'd argue the smaller variant would be more interesting because we can see the workings of selective pressure on a large animal to be *smaller* as a result of lower/smaller prey availability.
It was a good idea to do an episode about flying fish. Being an 18th century sailor and seeing a fish fly above the ocean must have been witchcraft. On the question of how they will evolve, I can only say one thing; not much if we, humans, keep up destroying our planet as we are doing now ... it is sad, because such a flying bird-fish would be cool.
Saw these guys in the wild once. We were going to some near shore island or something (the important thing is we were on a moving boat) and the driver- or pilot or captain- saw a school of them. So he kept going towards them and then they started jumping out of the water and gliding alongside the boat. It was awesome, just like flying fish ( and flying squid)
@Anzu Wylei, Just a dino guy Beating wings, rather than through gliding phase, powered flight might occur in ground-bound theropod lineage. So-called "ground-up" hypothesis has addressed the issue very strongly recently. More convincing.
Wonderful to learn about these fascinating fish! Thank you for showing so many varieties. I never realized they had so many wing patterns. Best wishes, Dianna
The flying fish would be interesting in a serina like world : yeah there would be the flish from the future is wild but we would have other things like : flying sharks attacking their prey by jumping out of the water and then stealthly stalking it from the air finishing it up with a swift dive , a ekratoplane whale fish capable of using the ground effect and inertia to travel for long distances at high speeds , a hydrofoil orca fish socondarily evolved from a air breathing species capable of pushing itself with little drag and at high speeds by using modified pelvic fins to work like an hydrofoil , a sailing turle fish using the oceanic winds to raft along using no energy and my favourite a scramjet seahawk fish with one way lungs derived from the gills capable of pressurizing and heating the air aiding the supercharged wing muscle with extra trust and faster dives needless to say it would hunt flishes like a cheeta hunting domesticated sheeps .
this channel is so good! i love every episode and its criminal that you have under 300,000 subs. we all need to share, comment, and like every video. they deserve it and people deserve to see these vids. please help this channel grow and help people learn by introducing them to this channel.
What about Coyotes? Canis latrans deserves some love! After all, Coyotes are a modern success story, having colonized most of the North American continent! And not only that, but having conquered North America, coyotes continue to expand their range further south towards South America, which means may, in the near future, no longer be solely North American animal, but a Pan-American animal!
That one fish with what appears to be a squared about body looks like nature is trying to give it a lifting body design. They are also taking advantage of ground effects at that distance above the water, just like the effect right before an aircraft lands. So amazing!
I'm working on a speculative evolution project centered on flying fish, this video has been pretty helpful because I can't really find to much info on flying fish, so thanks.
It is important to note that these fish still breathe water. If they become long term flyers , then it will be along the same evolution that mammals that are aquatic . As returning to the water surface would be vital for it's survival with a likely chance the surface of the water would be the main home. It would make for a interesting invasive species, as a true flying fish would be able to span longer distances to find ponds , and rivers inside land blocked areas.
I wonder if it would be possible for them to eventually evolve a unique form of powered flight side-to-side tail propulsion? Probably easier to go with the classic wing flapping, though.
Fascinating. These fish are like the astronauts of the ocean. I wish I could be around in a few thousand years or so to see how this fish continues to evolve
If you haven’t yet I’d love to see a video like this one on the Osteoglossiformes, aka Bony Tongued Fish (of which the African butterfly fish is one). Other extant species include Arapaima and the arowanas and Saratoga’s. I believe there are also some knifefish that belong to this order. They’re an interesting bunch. Ooh and Bichirs would be another interesting video - lots keep them for pets and Morocco had some massive ones around when Spinosaurus was there.
My bet would be that flying fish will just get better at gliding for longer periods of time and maybe reaching more height above the water. Of course they still need to be in the water to respire. The fresh water species you mentioned though have a lot of predators to worry about outside of the water, namely birds. So I see those species maintaining an aquatic lifestyle far a long time to come
There's a species of fossil shark from Devonian-Carboniforous era that has the same elongated pectoral fins of flying fish as well, suggesting this adaptation evolved in fish other than ray-finned too.
I don't know if this helps but when I was younger I used to do a lot of diving. At Boca Raton inlet in Florida, each spring during April 2nd or third week usually, the Sargasso weed would come in and with it would come in a lot of what could only be described as flying fish. Each one was multi-colored like guppies, but they actually flew by flapping their fins very fast. Often when I would try to net one from the southern shore of the inlet where a row of metal planks driven into the sand, made up a wall that had the bank washed away behind them to form a pool on the landward side that caused the Sargasso weed to accumulate in a swirling mass. These floating mats held a variety of fry from several different fish families, like seahorses, blowfish, pipefish and many more. When bringing my dip net up from below they often times would jump out of the water and fly for quite a long distance, up to about hundred yards sometimes. These fish are only about an inch or less long. I don't know if they were the fry of some larger form or not, but I have yet to see a video about them. I also spotted white and black banded sea snake pass through there. I never knew they lived anywhere close to Florida.
According to wiki the earliest gliding fish dates back at around 240 million years ago but the flying fish today was evolved at around 66 million years ago independently from the earlier ones. Don't think it is a coincidence that they evolved with the great extinction being how it left a vacuum and lack of competition for the air. Interesting that today flying fish came after the birds.
I remember seeing these fish when I was jetsking in the Maldives, I genuinely thought I was hallucinating but then I stopped and that the fish were actually flying.
I've seen them in huge swells a seal was chasing them and they would come out at the top of a swell and fly all the way to the bottom of swell and go back in the water and come out on the top of the swell and do it over and over. It was fascinating, they are a lot bigger than the pictures show. We would put a spot light on them in anchor and they would get blinded by the light and fly right into other boats, fun as hell. There about 3 feet long. Pretty colors also.
I have a flying fish story: We were fishing off Catalina island last summer and for the first time I watched 3 or 4 of them gliding right in front of our boat. I was surprised how long they could stay in the air and how fast they were going, about 20mph. They were also larger then I expected, about 12 inches. My wife was super excited and saying how beautiful they were... next thing I know something drilled the side of our haul with 3 loud thuds. I throttle back because I thought I hit a log then realized 3 of them flew into the side of the boat. We turned around just in time to see a school of barracuda make lunch of them.
Great vid, it would be awesome if you made vids about similar toppics such as the origin of complex animal behaviors(creation of nests, synchronized flight, synchronized movement, how certain plants bait/attract specific insects).
It makes me very happy to hear that these marvelous creatures are actually very common and varied and not on the verge of extinction like so many other natural wonders
I saw some while on a fishing trip in Hawaii. I was sea sick and thought I was hallucinating when I saw them leaping out of the water and soaring for a great distance. Amazing creatures.
I don't know if you read these things but i just want to say how much i enjoy your channel. I never really had an opportunity to go to University and persue some sort of career in paleo arceology so watching your content is an absolute joy, I hope you fully succeed in your career ambitions. Please continue making great content like this channel and others like Seven Days in Science. Thank you so very much End note, what selection pressures caused the lower jaw of the Half-Beaks to evolve?
If flying fish achieve powered flight, then I would imagine them being reverse dolphins: flying in the air and returning to the water for oxygen.
Have you ever heard of the future is wild? Because many of the episodes contain flying fish called flish.
@@groundon462 ah yes, I watch every episode on RUclips. I even watched the animated kids series where they reused the same creatures from the speculative document.
Saw these while fishing off Grand Bahama. Fascinating creatures. I didn't even care that I didn't catch anything.
afraid flight is too energy demanding for this to work, we might see an atmospheric breathing system of sorts emerging though- still unlikely as the more primitive hearts and nervous system would likely prohibit such transition
@@matushonko7223 Speaking of which... how do flying fish breathe while airborne? Do they trap some water inside and use that?
It's not possible to not love flying fish. Thanks for another fascinating program, Ben.
I adore them. I used to love taking the ferry to Catalina island, watching the flying fish jump out if the boat's wake 💜
Totally agreed. I've yet to see them in real but I really want to, especially the smaller ones with those beautifully coloured fins.
Until they smack you in the face
He forgot about the japanese flying squid
As a child i thought a flying fish is made up and just some kind of fabulous creature, lol
The real treat is to hear someone say "aerodynamic fish" and it actually being right for once!
Well.... whether it is aero or hydro, they're both just fluid dynamics related topics. The main difference is the medium........ and uh, that one kills you if you don't go fast enough so you crash while the other kills you if you go too deep (contrary to popular belief, this is not because of the pressure crushing your submarine but because you're being devoured by Cthulhu #SciFacts).
For once.. How many times have you heard that?
Plenty of times actually, and it doesn't stop on fish either. I've heard of aerodynamic sharks (ok a type of fish), dolphins, seals, polar bears, tadpoles... you get the picture.
@@DGFTardin well, tbh Dumbo *IS* an aerodynamic elephant.... so who knows! Aerodynamic dolphins, bears, tadpoles... everything is possible!
If it starts out hydrodynamic, it can't be too far off from being aerodynamic. As an old boss would say, it's synergy.
Yo! You should've made a reference to flying squid, too. Those are amazing (if you haven't made a video on them already).
Oh yeah! I forgot about flying squid!
@Please Complete All Fields My reaction exactly
I didn't know those were a thing seems like everything in the ocean is trying to learn how to fly. Although Manta Ray's are the best in my opinion.
holy shit THOSE THINGS EXIST!?
@@fang609 Mantine?
Thank you for writing their names on the screen now!!
This channel is in dire need of more subscribers to compliment its great content
Mark Kestner I completely agree
Flying fish be like: See you later, suckers
Birds be like: i'm going to destroy this man's career
Memes staler than my grandmas bread. That bread was in the Wehrmacht for gods sake.
Birds be like: YEET
Flish be like whoosh niqqa
Dolphin: On your left.
Birds be like : thats free realstate
These fish are not flying..... *they are falling with style*
Falling with extra steps.
Toy story reference
Philip Turner relax, it’s a joke mate 👍
Lord Frieza That’s a prerequisite to actual flight
we’re not aiming for the sea
Why should we limit ourselves to flish?
Why not dragonflish?
@ariannasv22 ; "According to the legend, carps that leap over a legendary waterfall, referred to as the Dragon Gate, are transformed into dragons." That is why Magikarp "evolves" into Gyarados in Pokemon.
Ibn4 flying fish being proto wyverns.
No one has seen James Cameron's Avatar??
There actually is a Dragonfish, it's a Relative of the Seahorse.
The issue with the concept of the "Flish" is not only the fact that birds already occupy that niche - the more significant problem is breathing. Active flying requires way too much oxygen to do a reverse marine mammals and just frequently dive into the water and store it. It's questionable if it's possible to develop lungs and body structures sophisticated enough for flight in an oceanic habitat.
There are birds that don't fly well or at all, but rather do better in water.
@@Raison_d-etre There's also fish that have lungs and/or specialised gills that can survive for long periods of time out of water. With enough time and the right circumstances who knows what might evolve from the fish species that are around today.
First of all, if you watch 'The Future is Wild', they explain that Flish only evolved after the extinct of birds (also mentioned at 8:46). Second, modern oceanic ray-finned fish actually possess a swim bladder that were originally lungs in the freshwater ancestors of most of the modern forms, which were some of the few types of fish left over after the Late Devonian Mass Extinction obliterated the gigantic placoderms, which lacked primitive lungs. In many ray-finned fish today, such as the tarpon, this organ has been re-adapted to be used by them as a simple lung too. Also, many species of eel, like the electric eel, are able to make forays onto the land because their mouths and gums are highly vascularized, with lots of blood vessels quite close to the external environment. Additionally, some fish can breathe air by absorbing it through their skin, and a few have even evolved a labyrinthine system of ducts of gulp air. Third, I would argue that the fins of fish can be easily adapted to become highly dextrous, allowing the whole organ to change shape, as would be required for flight. Examples of this range to the modern frogfish to the prehistoric Tiktaalik, which could literally use its fins to do a push-up. Walking catfish can even use their fins to help them wriggle across dry land. By improving the dexterity of their fins, creatures like flying fish could use their gliding to not only escape predators better, but also to sneak on prey from above. Fourth, the book version of 'The Future is Wild' details that Flish have specialized oils lighter-than-water oils (also possessed by sharks) in their bodies along with specialized hollow scales that allow them to float in between glides. Fifth, if the fish evolved in shallow water, perhaps with a lower oxygen content, that filled dramatically with great expanses of water at one time of year and then become muddy and treacherous at another time of the year, it could kill two birds with one stone by developing stronger fins to maneuver through these tighter conditions but also glide when water levels are higher. This could be particularly important in an environment like that that is described in 'The Future is Wild' as being where Flish evolved, after a great future mass extinction killed off almost all life. In these sheltered environments, perhaps mangrove swamps or analogous regions, opportunists could gain a foothold. This also ties in some things the video mentions at about 9:15.
@@andrewkawam2603
I didn't argue it's impossible, just significantly less likely compared to terrestrial animals. Happened three times with vertebrates alone after all.
@@andrewkawam2603 there is also a problem that if birds did kick the bucket, this leaves the skies free for insects and bats to take over. Flying sea creatures would also be more free to take to the skies but they won't be the only ones.
I see no reason for birds to go extinct in the future, they're just too successful. The future of flying fish is uncertain for sure, but interesting.
No one is safe from extinction, birds don’t have to go extinct for fish to gain flight. Birds developed while pterosaurs were still thriving, and bats while birds were still flying. I see no reason for fish to begin flying in a couple million years and carve out new niches whether or not birds go extinct.
fly fish are distributed all over the tropics and even parts of subtropics, i think they have time to improve.
i hope they develop an adaptation against avians, like upright eyes. they can already greatly sense predators ambushing bellow em, they just got to be weary of above.
Fish dont dominate the ocea, i see flying being predators in similar behaviur to dolphins except the glide above the water and going in to hunt or get prey
Well, pterodactyls were highly successful, too, but then Earth changed suddenly. ☄️
Id imagine just the behaviour of jumping out of water when danger was around helped individuals survive over those that didnt. And perhaps predators would trying snatch some as they left the water which then allowed individuals who traveled further to survive. Nature is amazing
I never realised how good they actually looked beautiful.
I just adore flying fish 💜 Truly fascinating and elegant creatures!
Imagine the flying fish evolve to the flish from the future is wild!!!
Yeah along with the terrestrial octopuses, the bird fish were some of the coolest speculative evolutions ever
David King that show definitely has a cephalopod bias.
I’m an aquarium hobbyist. I’ve kept and bred African Butterflyfish in the past. I can tell you for certain that their instinct is to DIVE in reaction to threats from both above and below. They only jump to catch insects mid-air. I think I still have a very detailed post of my observations and experiments about the widespread misconception that butterflyfish jumps to avoid danger out there somewhere in a hobbyist forum. Unless the wild varieties of this fish behave exactly the opposite to their captive counterparts (which I seriously doubt), your source is wrong mate.
Like I said I did find some conflicting sources concerning their behaviours, so it's interesting to know that they are actually false anyway. Thank you for correcting me, and here's the source I found stating they're 'ballistic jumpers': www.fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=2075&AT=freshwater+butterflyfish
I've been on a ferry (small vehicle ferry) in the Philippines between Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, and seen flying fish flying out from in front of the boat and directly away, almost all in approx 30 degree spread aligned with the boat's direction. Looked like escape. Couldn't see any insects on the surface or in the air.
@@williamchamberlain2263 this post is about the butterfly fish not the marine flying fish.
Yeahh butterfly fish is a freshwater fish.
And flying fish actually evolved to avoid predators through flying, butterfly fish have a limited surface area thats why they use their wings to catch prey not to mention their habitat are full of insects, i dont think ocean have alot of insects.
your videos give me a lot of insight into natural selection and convergent evolution.
THANKS!
I currently have a few freshwater hatchetfish in my aquarium and usually they will swim down when threatened. They will jump if startled though, or to catch a fruit fly.
I think that without the pressures of predation, the flying fish would loose its need to spend energy flying or growing adaptations for flight. since their large, intelligent predators like dolphins and marlin are gradually decreasing in numbers do to pressures from human activity, eventually the flying fish will loose their ability to even jump out of the water.
if you took the fish to a new hypothetical planet where everything was the same except no human activity on wild systems, they would eventually learn to actually fly, maybe. but it sounds like what is most useful to them is just skirting above the water, so they might not need to actually take off.
if this hypothetical world lost its aerial predators, the flish might evolve to fill that niche, but it would take a lot of energy to learn to fly: so there would need to be a real pressure to force them to leave the water.
I mean flying would actually be a pretty good way to avoid conventional human hunting methods like trawling and net based hunting
This was awesome! Could you do a video on the Origins of pterosaurs?
This
@AllSeeingEye ofGod What's it like to be on the losing side of an argument that was over 150 years ago?
Ben, the thoroughness of your content never ceases to amaze me. I found every second of this fascinating.
Thanks for this video, seriously fascinating topic. Maybe those flish would still require water to breath, like how whales and dolphins breath air like their ancient ancestors
Well there are actually plenty of air-breathing fish so I doubt that that's necessary
Gary Meaney That is true but for these fish there seems to be not that much of anatural selection factor that would require them to suddenly evolve air breathing (unless there is, do tell me) I feel like if they do evolve powered flight, there’d be a period where they develop to be flying pseudo-amphibians, where water is necessary for breathing and breeding, perhaps they won’t be able to stray to far away from the water. Then I’m assuming evolution will take its course and air breathing lineages will evolve.
The thing is, marine mammels haven't kept breathing because they can't re-evolve gills. They've done it because breathing air is an advantage for them. They'd loose lots of heat through gills, and they'd be restricted to only as much oxygen as is disolved in the water. Air breathing allows even large mammels with energetic lifestyles to live in cold waters with limited oxygen, and be more energetic in general.
Flish would gain nothing by keeping gills on the other hand, and stand to gain a lot by evolving lungs. Since the evolution of lungs by fish has occured more than once, we should expect flish to do so once they start spending a lot of time out of the water. In fact, air breathing is probably neccassary to provide enough oxygen for sustained powered flight.
Great video. I have always found flying fish to be fascinating creatures, but I never did any research into them. Your video taught me more in 15 minutes than I have learned about them in my entire life.
A fish and a bird in one package?
That sounds delicious
I don't think it has scales tho. So it's haram.
You're probably not a Muslim but I though that would be an interesting fact.
It has scales.Also I don't think eating bird meat is haram.In our country we drink raw bird eggs for breakfast and don't bat an eye.
Tf are you Chinese?
@@موسى_7 well your comments around a year old, but reading it made me Google Haram, so that's new and interesting to me
Ahh now a days people dont care if the animal is rare or exotic or dangerous tjey just eat whatever they see
I've long thought that flying fish were among the most fascinating kinds of fish. But you somehow still managed to make them so much more interesting than I could have imagined. Well done
Such a great video that covers so much content. Thank you
Great job, Ben. Every aspect was covered with logic at every step.
An amazing creature that I forget about a lot.
They're beautiful. The blue ones especially. 😊👍
Therizinosaurs when?
At some point definitely. I have to do a video on them since they're my favourite group of dinosaurs! :)
I love these deep dive videos. Keep up the good work and enjoy your summer guys!
Thanks! :D
I love how in depth these videos get in such a short time.
This is seriously one of the best youtube vids i've seen in a while. Thanks for the quality content.
Awesome video guys!
It would be great a video about extinct south american ungulates, and what would have happened if they were still around.
I'd like an episode about it too!
This was a very interesting and informative video. Thank you! Also, that pic of a flying halfbeak was awesome, thanks for posting it, I had no idea there were flying fish outside Exocoetidae.
Excuse me, you said "wings." I can only assume you meant to say "fwings"
"Wins"
I first saw one when I was 21 and was quite taken aback, questioning if I’d really seen a flying fish. A few years ago I was on a cruise and saw them all the time. I loved sitting out on the balcony and watching them. It was awesome.
Concerning "The Future Is Wild" bird fish, convergent evolution has created swimming, walking, burrowing, and flying across many groups, so a truly flying fish is not beyond possibilities if the environment encourages it. Penguins (fish bird) swim. I intuitively find the book and series dubious.
Truly an in-depth study of one of my favorite fish
Considering that some animals breath air but live in the water, it could be possible for the flish to live in the air but need to go down every so often to the water in order to breath. The question would be: what adaptations would allow them to absorb enough oxygen in short dives? and whether those adaptations are more likely than those needed to breath air
Breath is a noun, breathe is a verb
Great video! I really enjoyed this one.
Thanks, I'm glad to know! :)
Evolution of flying fish.
*Catfish at airport* - "ill have 1 plane ticket to New York please"
I went deep sea fishing once, and an entire school of flying fish flew over our boat. Hundreds of them. All you could hear was the slapping of their little wing fins, and it felt like it was lightly raining for a moment from the water coming off them. Pretty amazing experience.
i believe Flish will fly one day, maybe not with look of what was shown but i do like like the thought. why could the flish not still dwell in the water and still use the sky, so that they can feed in the deep and the air?!
13 minutes felt like the whole book.. There's nothing I could ask for... WELL DONE!
The flying fish is what happens when skip a bunch of steps in your evolution.
No, it's not.
@@Raison_d-etre I know it's a joke...
Reason as in skipping on water
The joke was they skipped a bunch of step and went straight to flying.
@@Raison_d-etre you're what happens when the best sperm doesnt fertilize the egg.
I see these nearly everytime I go out into the deepwater fishing (20kms offshore) and I never get bored with watching them. There colour is just stunning.., ours is the bright electric blue species and we always take these as a good sign that the fishing will be good.
The Exocet French-built anti-ship missile takes its name from the flying fish. Flying fish is Exocet in French. Exocet missiles fly low like flight fishes.
With sea skimming can be hardly detected by radars. Exocet did good job during the Falkland war.
ive been looking for this sort of video, talking about the evolution and biology of flying fish, for around 5 months. Good thing i found this finally.
13 minutes and no video footage of them in action?
@Big Bill O'Reilly what?
@Big Bill O'Reilly dude lay off the drugs
This videos answered so many questions ive had for so long. thank you. Great video
Bro they just be like: aight bro ima just grow wings and start flying don’t worry bout me
Amazing as always, great video. Thank you for your hard work and research! I absolutely love this kind of historical to speculative future video. Keep up the good work! 😄
YES! Senpai noticed me!!!
Thank you for the suggestion! :)
You just replaced the question lol
Also jumping or flying rays clearing the water's surface by metres, it's a sight to see a 150cm ray meters in the air. The ocean, a place of wonders.
Flying Fish: *fly to escape predators*
Birds: I'm about to end this whole species' careers
Edit: someone beat me to it. On a different note, there's at least one group of unrelated prehistoric flying fish
I saw Flying Fish recently while on a cruise. I knew they were around, but I never thought I’d get to see them in the Wild. So awesome! I was also surprised by how frequently I would spot them over the week that I was at sea.
They glide/fly to escape predators.
A lot of great info that I've been looking for here. These notes are gonna come in handy. If you'd like to dive into sea cucumbers, there's an equally large void of researchable info about them as well.. Love what you do. Thanks for all your efforts.
Could you make a video on Eastern United States Tyrannosaurs?
TheSmurfyMixels Nope,the Great Western Canadian Prairie Tyrannosaur should be done first because it’s much bigger.
Size doesn’t matter
@@richardputz3233 I'd argue the smaller variant would be more interesting because we can see the workings of selective pressure on a large animal to be *smaller* as a result of lower/smaller prey availability.
This is the most fascinating video. Well done on your research.
It was a good idea to do an episode about flying fish. Being an 18th century sailor and seeing a fish fly above the ocean must have been witchcraft. On the question of how they will evolve, I can only say one thing; not much if we, humans, keep up destroying our planet as we are doing now ... it is sad, because such a flying bird-fish would be cool.
Saw these guys in the wild once. We were going to some near shore island or something (the important thing is we were on a moving boat) and the driver- or pilot or captain- saw a school of them. So he kept going towards them and then they started jumping out of the water and gliding alongside the boat. It was awesome, just like flying fish ( and flying squid)
Dinosaurs started flying by gliding :>
But were already breathing air.
To evolve flight, you got to have an efficient breathing system.
No they were flapping first. So were pterosaurs and bats. Gliders stay gliders.
@Anzu Wylei, Just a dino guy Beating wings, rather than through gliding phase, powered flight might occur in ground-bound theropod lineage. So-called "ground-up" hypothesis has addressed the issue very strongly recently. More convincing.
Wonderful to learn about these fascinating fish! Thank you for showing so many varieties. I never realized they had so many wing patterns. Best wishes, Dianna
Would be cool to see a video on the development of sociality in insects
Can we keep talking about how is this channel not in the Millions by now, people share this stuff
The flying fish would be interesting in a serina like world : yeah there would be the flish from the future is wild but we would have other things like : flying sharks attacking their prey by jumping out of the water and then stealthly stalking it from the air finishing it up with a swift dive , a ekratoplane whale fish capable of using the ground effect and inertia to travel for long distances at high speeds , a hydrofoil orca fish socondarily evolved from a air breathing species capable of pushing itself with little drag and at high speeds by using modified pelvic fins to work like an hydrofoil , a sailing turle fish using the oceanic winds to raft along using no energy and my favourite a scramjet seahawk fish with one way lungs derived from the gills capable of pressurizing and heating the air aiding the supercharged wing muscle with extra trust and faster dives needless to say it would hunt flishes like a cheeta hunting domesticated sheeps .
Those are some very cool ideas! A planet/moon filled with flying fish descendants would be incredible to see! :D
this channel is so good! i love every episode and its criminal that you have under 300,000 subs. we all need to share, comment, and like every video. they deserve it and people deserve to see these vids. please help this channel grow and help people learn by introducing them to this channel.
'Flish'
Boi.
I really enjoy how you guys have been exploring wings as of late.
I want a dog fight between flying fish
I've seen these flying fish many times in the south pacific islands....and they glide way up high, one of my favorite fish!
Hey can you do more speculative zoology videos
Yeah can you do ALL speculative zoology videos?
We're planning to! :)
@@BenGThomas Maybe flying anomalocarids, flying butterfly 'shrimp' LOL?
@@BenGThomas it would be cool if there were some interplanetary speculative zoology!
Ooh, do a video on Serina, the world of birds
What about Coyotes? Canis latrans deserves some love! After all, Coyotes are a modern success story, having colonized most of the North American continent! And not only that, but having conquered North America, coyotes continue to expand their range further south towards South America, which means may, in the near future, no longer be solely North American animal, but a Pan-American animal!
That one fish with what appears to be a squared about body looks like nature is trying to give it a lifting body design. They are also taking advantage of ground effects at that distance above the water, just like the effect right before an aircraft lands. So amazing!
I'm working on a speculative evolution project centered on flying fish, this video has been pretty helpful because I can't really find to much info on flying fish, so thanks.
It is important to note that these fish still breathe water. If they become long term flyers , then it will be along the same evolution that mammals that are aquatic . As returning to the water surface would be vital for it's survival with a likely chance the surface of the water would be the main home. It would make for a interesting invasive species, as a true flying fish would be able to span longer distances to find ponds , and rivers inside land blocked areas.
I wonder if it would be possible for them to eventually evolve a unique form of powered flight side-to-side tail propulsion? Probably easier to go with the classic wing flapping, though.
Really enjoy the more obscure creature taxonomies. Thanks for this vid!
Fascinating. These fish are like the astronauts of the ocean. I wish I could be around in a few thousand years or so to see how this fish continues to evolve
Another great one.
If you haven’t yet I’d love to see a video like this one on the Osteoglossiformes, aka Bony Tongued Fish (of which the African butterfly fish is one). Other extant species include Arapaima and the arowanas and Saratoga’s. I believe there are also some knifefish that belong to this order. They’re an interesting bunch.
Ooh and Bichirs would be another interesting video - lots keep them for pets and Morocco had some massive ones around when Spinosaurus was there.
My bet would be that flying fish will just get better at gliding for longer periods of time and maybe reaching more height above the water. Of course they still need to be in the water to respire. The fresh water species you mentioned though have a lot of predators to worry about outside of the water, namely birds. So I see those species maintaining an aquatic lifestyle far a long time to come
There's a species of fossil shark from Devonian-Carboniforous era that has the same elongated pectoral fins of flying fish as well, suggesting this adaptation evolved in fish other than ray-finned too.
Flying sharks...thanks, nature. Just...thanks.
I don't know if this helps but when I was younger I used to do a lot of diving. At Boca Raton inlet in Florida, each spring during April 2nd or third week usually, the Sargasso weed would come in and with it would come in a lot of what could only be described as flying fish. Each one was multi-colored like guppies, but they actually flew by flapping their fins very fast. Often when I would try to net one from the southern shore of the inlet where a row of metal planks driven into the sand, made up a wall that had the bank washed away behind them to form a pool on the landward side that caused the Sargasso weed to accumulate in a swirling mass. These floating mats held a variety of fry from several different fish families, like seahorses, blowfish, pipefish and many more. When bringing my dip net up from below they often times would jump out of the water and fly for quite a long distance, up to about hundred yards sometimes. These fish are only about an inch or less long. I don't know if they were the fry of some larger form or not, but I have yet to see a video about them. I also spotted white and black banded sea snake pass through there. I never knew they lived anywhere close to Florida.
Keep up the good work 👏🏽
Here I am, once again. 2am, watching videos about the evolution of flying fish.
According to wiki the earliest gliding fish dates back at around 240 million years ago but the flying fish today was evolved at around 66 million years ago independently from the earlier ones. Don't think it is a coincidence that they evolved with the great extinction being how it left a vacuum and lack of competition for the air. Interesting that today flying fish came after the birds.
You did a good job on this video dude.
I remember seeing these fish when I was jetsking in the Maldives, I genuinely thought I was hallucinating but then I stopped and that the fish were actually flying.
I've seen them in huge swells a seal was chasing them and they would come out at the top of a swell and fly all the way to the bottom of swell and go back in the water and come out on the top of the swell and do it over and over. It was fascinating, they are a lot bigger than the pictures show.
We would put a spot light on them in anchor and they would get blinded by the light and fly right into other boats, fun as hell. There about 3 feet long. Pretty colors also.
I have a flying fish story: We were fishing off Catalina island last summer and for the first time I watched 3 or 4 of them gliding right in front of our boat. I was surprised how long they could stay in the air and how fast they were going, about 20mph. They were also larger then I expected, about 12 inches. My wife was super excited and saying how beautiful they were... next thing I know something drilled the side of our haul with 3 loud thuds. I throttle back because I thought I hit a log then realized 3 of them flew into the side of the boat. We turned around just in time to see a school of barracuda make lunch of them.
Very cool. We seen some of these around our cruise ship. They must be huge as we were pretty high up and they appeared very large even then.
When I was snorkeling in Hawaii in the 80's I witnessed barracuda chasing flying fish out of the water. That is a memory I will never forget.
I bet many people think there is no such thing as a flying fish. It's a pretty amazing concept.
There are a lot of similar people
Great vid, it would be awesome if you made vids about similar toppics such as the origin of complex animal behaviors(creation of nests, synchronized flight, synchronized movement, how certain plants bait/attract specific insects).
It makes me very happy to hear that these marvelous creatures are actually very common and varied and not on the verge of extinction like so many other natural wonders
I saw some while on a fishing trip in Hawaii. I was sea sick and thought I was hallucinating when I saw them leaping out of the water and soaring for a great distance. Amazing creatures.
I don't know if you read these things but i just want to say how much i enjoy your channel. I never really had an opportunity to go to University and persue some sort of career in paleo arceology so watching your content is an absolute joy, I hope you fully succeed in your career ambitions. Please continue making great content like this channel and others like Seven Days in Science. Thank you so very much
End note, what selection pressures caused the lower jaw of the Half-Beaks to evolve?