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Mudskippers look like a fish that lost a bet with evolution. They spend up to 90 percent of their day out of water, hopping across mangrove mudflats along the coasts of Africa and Asia.
Most fish would suffocate within minutes on dry land, but mudskippers breathe through their skin and the lining of their mouth and throat, a method scientists call cutaneous respiration. As long as they stay damp, they can absorb oxygen directly from the air around them.
They use their pectoral fins like tiny crutches, propping themselves up and dragging their bodies forward in a motion that looks closer to crawling than swimming. Some species have even been filmed skipping across the surface of water using rapid tail flicks.
Mudskippers also climb. They scale roots, rocks, and even each other, using suction-like pelvic fins fused into a disc that grips slick surfaces the way a rock climber's shoe grips stone.
Their eyes sit on top of their heads like tiny periscopes, letting them watch for predators and prey while the rest of their body stays buried in mud. They can even retract and rotate their eyes to keep them moist without submerging entirely.
Male mudskippers build elaborate burrows with looping tunnels and air pockets, sealing pockets of oxygen underground so their eggs can develop even when the tide rolls in and covers the burrow completely.
Researchers studying mudskippers have pointed to them as a living model for how ancient fish might have first ventured onto land hundreds of millions of years ago. In other words, this odd little mudflat commuter may be acting out one of evolution's most important commutes in real time.
