Carry-out CocklesA blackspot tuskfish off Australia has its mouth full as it carries a cockle to a nearby rock, against which the fish was seen repeatedly bashing the shellfish to get at the fleshy bits inside.A recent study in the journal Coral Reefs says the picture—snapped at a depth of nearly 60 feet (18 meters) in Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 2006—is the first ever taken of a tool-using fish in the wild.Professional diver Scott Gardner was just about out of air and swimming back to the surface when he heard an odd cracking sound nearby. Swimming over to investigate, he spotted the foot-long (30-centimeter-long) fish at work."When Scott showed me his photos, I said 'Wow, this is quite amazing,'" said study co-author Alison Jones, a coral ecologist at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia.—Ker Than
Photograph courtesy Scott Gardner

First Pictures: Wild Fish Uses Tool

A fish off Australia has been seen bashing open shellfish with a rock—making it the first known wild fish observed using tools.

July 15, 2011