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Ugly....but yearning for companionship

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It’s not exactly Tony serenading Maria in ‘West Side Story,’ but for all their homeliness toadfish also sing to attract mates. Randolph E. Schmid of the Associated Press reports:

OK, singing may be a stretch; it’s more of a hum. But it turns out to be useful, for science as well as the fish (that’s a toadfish at right). Exploring how their nervous system produces sounds is allowing scientists to trace the earliest developments of vocalization in other animals, including people.

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Many animals communicate vocally -- birds chirp, frogs thrum, whales whistle -- and comparing the nerve networks in a variety of vertebrates suggests that making sounds originated in ancient fishes, researchers report in a recent edition of the journal Science.

The sounds of whales and dolphins are well known, but most people don’t realize fish also make sounds, lead researcher Andrew H. Bass of Cornell University said in a telephone interview. He’s a professor of neurobiology and behavior.

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