A fish using tools to crack open a stubborn clam shell has been caught on video for the first time.
The clip, shot in 2009 off the Pacific island of Palau, shows an orange-dotted tuskfish (Choerodon anchoago) digging a clam out of the ocean floor and carrying the clam in its mouth to a rock. Next, the fish repeatedly tosses the clam against the rock to crush it. [See the video of the tool-using fish]
The video was analyzed, and research based on the observations was published online Sept. 20 by the journal Coral Reefs.
"The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell," videographer Giacomo Bernardi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said in a statement. "It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it's a pretty big deal."
