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Electric eel skeleton, with the long vertebral column at top, the row of bony rays below. Electric eels have long, stout bodies, being somewhat cylindrical at the front but more flattened towards the tail end. E. electricus can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in length, and 20 kg (44 lb) in weight. The mouth is at the front of the snout, and opens upwards.
Among the electric fishes are electric eels, knifefish capable of generating an electric field, both at low voltage for electrolocation and at high voltage to stun their prey. An electric fish is any fish that can generate electric fields, whether to sense things around them, for defence, or to stun prey. Most fish able to produce shocks are ...
Electric eels use electricity in multiple ways. Low voltages are used to sense the surrounding environment. High voltages are used to detect prey and, separately, stun them, at which point the electric eel applies a suction-feeding bite. [12] Anatomy of an electric eel's electric organs. Sachs' organ is associated with electrolocation. Inside ...
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.
Electric organs are composed of stacks of specialised cells that generate electricity. [13] These are variously called electrocytes, electroplaques or electroplaxes. In some species they are cigar-shaped; in others, they are flat disk-like cells. Electric eels have stacks of several thousands of these cells, each cell producing 0.15 V.
Built from jelly-like materials, the self-healing batteries were developed by a team at the University of Cambridge after they took inspiration from the muscle cells of electric eels.
It closely resembles E. electricus but differs in skull morphology, including having a depressed skull and a wide head. It has a maximum voltage of 860 volts, making it not only the strongest bioelectricity generator of the three electric eel species, but also of any animal. [3]
The pounding of the horses' hooves, he noted, drove the electric eels, up to five feet (1.5 metres) long, out of the mud and prompted them to attack, rising out of the water and using their electricity to shock the horses. He saw two horses stunned by the shocks and then drowned.