Strong leaping skills help a bizarre hermaphrodite fish live out of water for weeks at a time, new research shows.
The mangrove rivulus is a small tropical killifish that's found in swamps from Florida to Brazil, measuring no bigger than 3 inches (75 millimeters) long. Its dull appearance hides the fact that the fish is sort of a freak; it can survive on land for as long as two months and it has a strange sex life.
All members of the species are hermaphrodites (though a few males have been found), and they are the only known vertebrate, or animal with a backbone, to reproduce by self-fertilizing. Researchers discovered in 2007 that the fish can live on land for up to 66 days straight, crowding inside the damp tunnels of rotting mangrove logs and even inside old beer cans and coconut shells, Reuters reported at the time.
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