Fish May Be The Best Athletes On Earth, Scientists

Now who is the greatest athlete on earth?

The answer might surprise you. Fish, says HNGN.

What makes them good athletes is their ability to "deliver" oxygen throughout their bodies, more than any other animal, according to scientists. It gives them a "significant athletic edge," explains the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies.

The fist is making use of a "mechanism that is up to 50 times more effective in releasing oxygen to their tissues than that found in humans," said study lead author, Jodie Rummer from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. He noted that the protein in their blood, responsiblie for the transportation of life-giving oxygen, is "more sensitive to changes in pH than ours and more than the [hemoglobins] in other animals."

This becomes acutely significant if the fish is using its athletic skills for fleeing hungry predators, and is pulsating with stress. Such situations can make some fish "double or even triple oxygen delivery to their tissue". Researchers monitored "muscle oxygen levels" in real-time in rainbow trout.

"This information tells us how fish have adapted this very important process of getting oxygen and delivering it to where it needs to be so that they can live in all kinds of conditions, warm or cold water, and water with high or low oxygen levels," Rummer said

"This trait may be particularly central to performance in athletic species, such as long distance swimming salmon or fast swimming tuna," added co-author, Colin Brauner from the University of British Columbia. "For fish, enhanced oxygen delivery may be one of the most important adaptations of their 400 million year evolutionary history."

The study was published in a recent edition of the journal PLOS ONE.