the.com/eel
a snake-shaped enigma that scientists still can't watch reproduce in the wild
means A long, snake-like fish with smooth, slippery skin that lives in fresh and salt water and can wriggle astonishingly through both.
from From Old English 'ǣl,' a word with deep Germanic roots — cousins survive in Dutch 'aal' and German 'Aal.' Its older ancestry is murky, which feels fitting for a creature whose own life cycle baffled people for centuries; even Aristotle, unable to find eel eggs, decided they must spring spontaneously from mud.
- birthplace mystery
- European eels spawn in Sargasso Sea, unseen by humans
- voltage
- electric eels deliver 600-volt shocks, enough to stun horses
- not even eels
- electric eels are actually knifefish, not true eels
- reverse gear
- some swim backward as easily as forward
- long haul
- larvae drift thousands of miles before becoming adults
european eel — catadromous fish that migrates 5,000+ miles from european rivers to the sargasso sea to spawn
american eel — native to north american rivers, shares the same sargasso sea spawning grounds as european eels
moray eel — over 200 species in tropical coral reefs worldwide, including the giant moray reaching 10 feet long
electric eel — electrophorus electricus from south american rivers, produces 860-volt shocks to hunt and navigate