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Venomous fish outnumber snakes

24 août 2006, 00:00

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It’s a good thing fish wouldn’t survive long if loose on a plane. A new study finds there are more venomous fish than venomous snakes.

The 1,200 presumably venomous fish tallied in a new study is six times previous estimates. Fish with a biting bite outnumber all other venomous vertebrates combined, in fact.“The results of this research were quite surprising,” said Smith, a researcher from the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

More than 50,000 people are poisoned by fish bites every year, Smith and his colleague said. Symptoms range from blisters to death. Among the fish to look out for: lionfishes, catfishes, scorpionfishes, weeverfishes, toadfishes, surgeonfishes, scats, jacks, rabbitfishes, stargazers, and stonefishes.

Smith conducted the study along with Ward Wheeler, Curator in the Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology. The results are reported in the Journal of Heredity.

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