Michael Jackson may no longer be with us, but it appears he has channeled his spirit into a peculiar type of fish – which, for what is believed to be the first time ever, has been caught on camera quite literally walking backward along the seafloor.
Much like the King of Pop, famed for his iconic backwards “moonwalk,” the armored sea robins in the footage glide with seemingly minimal effort in all directions, including forwards, backwards and laterally.
Armored sea robins (Peristediidae), also known as armored gurnards, are a subfamily of ray-finned fishes belonging to the sea robin family.
Found in deep tropical and warm temperate waters of the world's oceans, these fish have specialized, stiffened fin rays that act like independent, leg-like appendages, enabling them to walk along the seafloor. See for yourself:
ABOVE: Watch armored sea robins walking along South China Sea floor using their specialized, stiffened rays
The video, which shows three different types of armored sea robins, was captured by marine biologists from Sun Yat-sen University, China, in the South China Sea.
Using human-operated and remotely operated underwater vehicles, the researchers were able to record the fish at depths between 1,151ft and 1,551ft (351-473m).
In the subsequently published research article, the scientists commented that the three live sea robins moved in a sideways, crab-like way, but also backwards – a movement previously unobserved in any other fish.
The researchers said that when the fish walked, the specialized, stiffened rays acted like a “sweeping rake” across the seafloor, occasionally touching sediment bumps or rocks.
While the researchers noted that this morphological trait and its movement seemed “inconvenient” for walking, they believe that it is adapted to help sea robins probe sediment for prey.
Although these fish might not be as evolved as the King of Pop was, they have done a good job of getting their moonwalk up to scratch. Perhaps in a few more millennia, we’ll have footage of them too shredding the dance floor.
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