The world's shortest-lived fish, the gobies

There are many long-lived creatures in the world, the longest-lived vertebrate is the Greenland sleeping shark, they have a neurotoxin of trimethylamine in the body, affecting the life activity of the sleeping shark, so it can live longer than other vertebrates.

There are the longest-lived fish, and there must be the shortest-lived counterpart. If the Greenland sleeping shark is the longest-lived vertebrate, the goby is arguably the shortest-lived vertebrate. Gobies are a globally distributed fish, mostly in the tropics. There are about 800 species in the world, belonging to the order of perch and the suborder gobies. It inhabits mainly seawater and is a small carnivorous animal. Because of its short lifespan, it beat the "world record holder" - the non-toothed carp to become the world's shortest-lived vertebrate.

The gobies are all "dwarfs". They are mostly only 11 mm to 20 mm long. Their lifespan, on the other hand, is pitifully longer than their length, less than two months. Probably because of their short lifespan, they can hatch babies in an instant. Generally speaking, the reproductive cycle of gobies is only 25 days. During these 25 days, the female goby could only lay three piles of eggs, about 136, and then quietly died. Although life is short, gobies make the most of it. The baby will soon grow up under protection. After 3 weeks, the juvenile gobies grow into "adults" and swim back from the sea to the reef, where they develop into sexually mature individuals. When fully mature, the gobies will find a mate to mate.

In addition, we often see them in the waterfall area. Although its lifespan is short, the baby goby has the courage to go straight up against the current, and its ventral fin is disc-shaped, like a small suction cup, sucking tightly on the wall of water to climb upwards. Not all goby goby can successfully climb the waterfall, and there is no shortage of small goby gobys who are exhausted in the process, and they will be washed to the bottom of the waterfall by the waves, ending their lives. And those small goby who have successfully reached the top will find their own habitat there and thrive.

Australian researchers believe that the study of the lifespan of gobies will greatly broaden scientists' understanding of the limits of animal evolution. In response, one researcher said, "We believe that the extraordinary life cycle of gobies is a response to the natural phenomenon of high mortality rates of polyps. "In this case, life evolved more in favor of a strategy of fast growth and early death." Because their lifespan is so short, they have to develop and mature rapidly in a short period of time.

Reference: "Life" Gobies Fragment . CCTV.com. Retrieved 2017-05-06.