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World's Tiniest Vertebrate Found

Posted by michael on from the crunchy dept.

foidulus writes "The BBC reports that American scientists have identified the world's tiniest fish living around Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It is also the tiniest animal with a backbone. The male of the stout infantfish is only about 7 mm(or less than 1/4 of an inch) long. It has a life span of only around 2 months which scientists say may be an advantage because it can evolve rapidly."

6 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. That's about the right size... by OneDeeTenTee · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...to put in your ear.

    Have they tested the translation capabilities of these little critters?

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    Stop the world; I need to get off.
  2. Oh no! by Twintop · · Score: 2, Funny

    We need to destroy these creatures before they evolve into something that can take over the human race! With only a 2 month lifespan, they could easily out-evolve us within our children's lifetimes!

  3. Could be tiniest sentient too by Thinkit4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sentience is theorized to exist in the thalamus, which is a feature that evolved with vertabrates. You are in the cerebral spinal fluid in the third ventricle between the lobes of the thalamus.

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    -I am an elective eunuch.
    1. Re:Could be tiniest sentient too by flewp · · Score: 2, Funny

      How do I get out of here? This spinal fluid is kind of gross.

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      WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
    2. Re:Could be tiniest sentient too by Alsee · · Score: 2, Funny

      Can you name anything that has sentience that *doesn't* have a backbone? (maybe cephlapods, but they are wierd so they shouldn't count)

      In that case I guess most slashdot readers don't count either.

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  4. Re: Jumbo shrimp _not_ an oxymoron! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I see.
    So I could make a post saying that "the Eiffel Tower is big", and then when somebody modded me off-topic, I could complain, saying that I made a joke, because the Eiffel Tower is big, but the stout infantfish is small, and there is a connection between them because fish is served in the Eiffel Tower restaurant, and that they "abused their power" by modding down a post whose on-topicality should have been obvious to everyone.

    P.S. A list of acceptable HTML tags is displayed beneath the text box into which you typed your post.