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Electroreception and electrogenesis are the closely related biological abilities to perceive electrical stimuli and to generate electric fields. Both are used to locate prey; stronger electric discharges are used in a few groups of fishes (most famously the electric eel , which is not actually an eel but a knifefish ) to stun prey.
Where electroreception does occur in these groups, it has secondarily been acquired in evolution, using organs other than and not homologous with ampullae of Lorenzini. [2] [5] Most common bony fish are non-electric. There are some 350 species of electric fish. [6]
As this characteristic occurred after the prior loss of electroreception among the subclass Neopterygii [28] after having been present in the common ancestor of vertebrates, the ampullary receptors of Gymnotiformes are not homologous with those of other jawed non-teleost species, such as chondricthyans. [29]
Electroreception is the ability to detect electric fields or currents. Some fish, such as catfish and sharks, have organs that detect weak electric potentials on the order of millivolts. [ 24 ] Other fish, like the South American electric fishes Gymnotiformes , can produce weak electric currents, which they use in navigation and social ...
Detailed descriptions of the powerful shocks that the electric catfish could give were written in ancient Egypt. [1]In the 1770s the electric organs of the torpedo ray and electric eel were the subject of Royal Society papers by John Walsh, [2] Hugh Williamson, [3] and John Hunter, who discovered what is now called Hunter's organ.
The electric eels are a genus, Electrophorus, of neotropical freshwater fish from South America in the family Gymnotidae.They are known for their ability to stun their prey by generating electricity, delivering shocks at up to 860 volts.
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