Finding out what controls the formation of sensory legs meant growing sea robins from eggs. The research team observed that the legs of sea robins develop from the three pectoral fin rays that are ...

It’s a bird! It’s a crab! No, it’s a fish that can taste with its legs. Some sea robins, a group of fishes with two winglike fins and six crablike legs, use their legs to dig in sand and ...

Biology This Fish Doesn’t Just Walk—It Tastes With Its Legs, Too Sea robins are weird animals who use leg-like appendages to walk on the seafloor. Now, scientists know why they evolved those ...

But the fish also have adaptations in their nervous system that are related to their legs, suggesting their sensory function, Ramsay said. He was not involved in the new studies.

Sea robins are bottom-dwelling fish known for their unusual appearance and behaviors. As Nicholas Bellano aptly remarked, "As you said, it’s super weird. It’s as if you asked a child to draw an animal ...

The northern sea robin is a strange-looking fish with legs that it uses to "taste" the seafloor. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...

A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 1, 2024, Section D, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Seafood Detection: A Fish With Legs Doubling as Taste-Testers.