The present study investigated whether fluctuating asymmetry can serve as a useful biomarker of environmental stress in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). Fluctuating asymmetry was measured in sexually mature females sampled from two Florida, USA, coastal streams: The Fenholloway River, which is dominated by effluent from a paper mill, and Spring Creek, a tributary to the Fenhollowa...

The extent to which stray, hatchery-reared salmon affect wild populations is much debated. Although experiments show that artificial breeding and culture influence the genetics of hatchery salmon, little is known about the interaction between hatchery and wild salmon in a natural setting. Here, we estimated historical and contemporary genetic population structures of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus k...

The scaled skin of fish is a high-performance natural armor that represents a source of inspiration for novel engineering designs. In this paper, we present a biomimetic fish skin material, fabricated with a design and components that are simple, that achieves many of the advantageous attributes of natural materials, including the unique combination of flexibility and mechanical robustness. The...

Lake Metztitlán was dried up completely in the spring of 1998 and refilled in August of that year. In the period September-November, two cohorts of 1.6 million juveniles of a tilapia hybrid were stocked (Oreochromis aureus/O. niloticus), and monitored every month for one year. Since the date of birth of these juveniles was known, the analyses focused on whether the ring marks of the scales, sag...

The toxicity and presence of heavy metals in wastewater pose environmental-disposal problems because of their non-biodegradability and persistence in the environment. Heavy metals in wastewater were removed by using physical, chemical and biological treatment. Biosorption is one of the biological treatments emerging as an alternative environmental friendly technology for the removal of metal io...

We present a case of a fisherman who swallowed a live fish, which resulted in severe upper airway obstruction. The firm attachments of the fish's external fins and scales to the airway limit the removal when impacted. We outline our emergency airway management strategies and focus our discussion on the technique used to remove the impacted fish from the upper airway, which was paramount for the...

a r t i c l e i n f o Numerous biological and chemical paleorecords have been used to infer paleoclimate, lake level fluctuation and faunal composition from the drill cores obtained from Lake Malawi, Africa. However, fish fossils have never been used to examine changes in African Great Lake vertebrate aquatic communities nor as indicators of changing paleolimnological conditions. Here we presen...

A major goal and challenge of invasion ecology is to describe and interpret spatial and temporal patterns of species invasions. Here, we examined fish invasion patterns at four spatially structured and hierarchically nested scales across the contiguous United States (i.e., from large to small: region, basin, watershed, and sub-watershed). All spatial relationships in both richness and fraction ...

The bodies of most teleost fish species are covered with specialized subepithelial structures known as scales. The scale is an epithelial appendage that differentiates from the dermal mesenchyme. Mammals, on the other hand, have no scales, but instead their bodies are covered with hair. Although their appearances are quite different, scales and hair can be considered structurally similar in tha...

In this investigation the fracture resistance of scales from Cyprinus carpio was evaluated as a function of environmental temperature. Tear specimens were prepared from scales obtained from three characteristic regions (i.e. head, mid-length and tail) of multiple fish. The fracture resistance was characterized in Mode III loading and over temperatures ranging from -150°C to 21°C. Results showed...