The Hypertail And The Infratail: Axes From The Sublime To The Ridiculous?

Robin and the Honey Badger’s mission is to recharge biology with originality for you, the non-specialist reader. Exploring the Bio-edge is a series of e-essays presenting lateral thoughts in search of ever more interesting stories from biology. In this e-essay: the oarfish and the ocean sunfish are nature’s geometrical caricatures that point out our everyday blindness to where the tails of fishes really begin and end. Scientists have described two oddities of the fish world that seem to tread water in a blue area just beyond the mental reach of most nature-lovers. We dare to go beyond conventional ichthyology and to use a direct comparison of these enigmatic fishes to make sense of them. Our interpretation will simplify and transform not just the oarfish and ocean sunfish but fishes generally, enriching anyone who has ever appreciated the symmetry of aquatic adaptation.

Each morning Robin and the Honey Badger wake up to a world of Nature with new curiosity. Which aspects of the natural world have been underlooked? Which adaptations or non-adaptations of organisms have been downplayed because of some theoretical bias? Which observations have yet to be integrated because of interdisciplinary timidity? How laterally can we think as we cruise the bewildering diversity of life forms on Earth? Join us in our mission of Exploring the Bio-edge in a series of e-essays that fearlessly - but accurately - cover all corners of biology.