Six-bar Wrasse

Guardian: Pascal Espinosa

Thalassoma Hardwicke

If this fish has something that is too big to swallow it will swim into a particularly rough rock or smash the food into it so it breaks into smaller chunks. This has been called ‘anvil behaviour’ and it is the beginnings of tool use or if you like, the first step towards space travel. It also flutters its fins when courting which is very definitely a hip-hop dance move.

Not only that, the other day one of these wrasse swam up to me fearlessly and looked me in the eye and I am sure it was thinking “when is the next big extinction going to come, we are ready to inherit the Earth”.