Small, dumb and loud is just the perfect description for the animal I want to talk about today.
First let's begin with a photo!
Meet Danionella cerebrum, a cyprinid fish first reported in 2021 from turbid low altitude streams on the southern and eastern slopes of the Bago Yoma mountain range in Myanmar.
As you can see in the photo above, it's pretty small. Specifically, adults range from 10 to 13.5 mm in length. That's about half an inch.
So yeah it's small. But being dumb and loud is where our little fella really shines! With not one, but two world records 😂
First, with a brain volume of just 0.6 mm3 it has the smallest known adult vertebrate brain!
But you know, dumb is often combined with loud!
These tiny dumb fuckers can produce sounds that exceed 140 decibels, the loudest sound for any fish of that size! For reference, in decibels that's about like an airplane taking off!
Here's a video if you are curious about the nature of these sounds:
The sound appears to be some short of mating strategy, as the loudest males suppress the sound production of other males. Simple but effective, fitting for a dumb creature. 😂
Due to its simplified nervous system, the species is used in neuroscience research, especially for imaging neural circuits and studying brain activity.
All in all. An interesting critter both as an animal oddity and for research :)
Ok, I think I'll close now. See you soon with more strange animals from mother nature 😄