---
title: "What the sources say about the Atlantic Mudskipper | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "57 claims from the Atlantic Mudskipper profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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---

# What the sources say about the Atlantic Mudskipper (*Periophthalmus barbarus*)

> 57 claims from the Atlantic Mudskipper profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Atlantic Mudskipper](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/atlantic-mudskipper/)

## Diouf et al. (2020). Periophthalmus barbarus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T182285A21913503.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-2.rlts.t182285a21913503.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| The IUCN Red List rates it Least Concern | IUCN Red List category: Least Concern (LC). (note: Category read through GBIF's copy of the Red List (taxon 182285); the claim quotes the cached category text.) |

## Aiello et al. (2023). The origin of blinking in both mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220404120

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A West African fish that blinks on land and hunts crabs and insects on the mud. | regularly blink on land, both bilaterally and unilaterally (note: tagline; West Africa and the crab and insect diet are claimed separately below) |
| blinks on land | regularly blink on land, both bilaterally and unilaterally (note: tagline) |
| Blinks on land, in about 560 ms | The duration of spontaneous blinks ranged from 480 to 700 ms with a mean duration of 560 ± 73 ms (mean ± SD) (note: stats.superpower) |
| about the length of a human blink | This duration is approximately the same as the spontaneous blink of humans, which is 572 ± 25 ms (note: stats.superpower) |
| which fits the idea that a blink keeps the eye wet | These results are consistent with the hypothesis that eye wetting is one function of mudskipper blinking. (note: body) |
| Mudskippers have not evolved new muscles or glands for blinking. | mudskippers have not evolved novel musculature or glands to blink (note: body) |
| about the same as a human's 572 ms | This duration is approximately the same as the spontaneous blink of humans, which is 572 ± 25 ms (note: blockquote) |
| Researchers filming adults found that it blinks regularly on land and blinked more often when the air was drying out its eyes. | P. barbarus blinks more often under high-evaporation conditions to wet the eye (note: FAQ) |
| Most tetrapods, the four-limbed vertebrates, blink. | Most tetrapods blink, closing their eyes periodically with eyelids or a nictitating membrane (note: body; tetrapod glossed in prose) |
| Mudskippers are fish that evolved blinking separately | mudskippers (Oxudercinae), a clade of amphibious fishes that have convergently evolved blinking (note: convergently = separately from tetrapods) |
| the Atlantic mudskipper does it on land | regularly blink on land, both bilaterally and unilaterally (note: body) |
| To blink, it pulls its eye down into a space below the eye socket while a membrane called the dermal cup rises. | mudskippers blink by ventrally retracting the eye into an infraorbital space in conjunction with dorsal elevation of the dermal cup membrane (note: infraorbital = below the orbit) |
| When researchers raised the evaporation rate in its tank about 30 times, the fish blinked more often | we increased the air flow through the tank, which resulted in an evaporation rate approximately 30 times greater than in ambient control conditions (note: body) |
| the fish blinked more often | P. barbarus showed a significantly lower interblink interval (IBI), or the time between successive blinks of an eye, as compared to control (note: body) |
| A single blink can also fully clean the cornea, the clear front of the eye, of particles. | a single blink can fully clean the cornea of particulates (note: cornea glossed in prose) |
| Twelve spontaneous blinks from four mudskippers | We collected three-dimensional blinking kinematics in four individuals of P. barbarus (12 blinks total, three blinks per individual) (note: blockquote) |
| lasted 480 to 700 ms, averaging 560 ms | The duration of spontaneous blinks ranged from 480 to 700 ms with a mean duration of 560 ± 73 ms (note: blockquote) |
| The Atlantic mudskipper does. Researchers filming adults found that it blinks regularly on land | The Indian mudskipper, Periophthalmodon septemradiatus, and the African mudskipper, Periophthalmus barbarus, regularly blink on land (note: FAQ) |
| filming adults | Adult individuals of each species were housed in tanks that allowed for free movement between water and land. (note: FAQ) |

## Michel, Aerts & Van Wassenbergh (2016). Environment-dependent prey capture in the Atlantic mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus). Biology Open.

https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.019794

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| the fish feeds mostly on land | feeds predominately in this environment (note: body; the sentence names the terrestrial environment) |
| Aquatic vertebrates generally feed by sucking water into the mouth. | Aquatic vertebrates generally use suction of water into the mouth (note: body) |
| measured from the snout to the end of the backbone | The standard length (measured from the snout tip to the posterior end of the last vertebra) (note: definition of SL) |
| On land the mudskipper uses what researchers call a hydrodynamic tongue | a hydrodynamic tongue, such as we find in the mudskippers when feeding on land (note: body) |
| water in its mouth flows forward as the mouth opens and helps it feed | Given the considerable forward flow of water observed during the mouth-opening phase to assist with feeding on land (note: body) |
| On land it raises and then drops the floor of its mouth, a movement kept from the way it uses water in its mouth underwater. | the elevation followed by depression of the floor of the mouth by means of the hyoid skeleton as exhibited on land, is retained from a behaviour in which intra-oral water is used in the aquatic environment (note: body) |
| Just before it feeds in water its gill slits open | Prior to feeding in the aquatic environment, the gill slits open, allowing water to be expelled through the gill slits. (note: body) |
| on land they stay closed | The opposite happens in terrestrial feeding during which the gill slits remain closed at this point. (note: body) |

## Kuciel (2012). The mechanism of olfactory organ ventilation in Periophthalmus barbarus (Gobiidae, Oxudercinae). Zoomorphology.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-012-0167-y

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| It can also hold a little water and air in its mouth while out of the water, with the gill lid shut. | the ability to keep a little amount of water and air in mouth while on land or in hypoxic water, correlated with closing a gill lid (note: body) |

## Chukwu & Deekae (2011). Length-weight relationship, condition factor and size composition of Periophthalmus barbarus (Linneaus 1766 ) in New Calabar River, Nigeria. Agriculture and Biology Journal of North America.

https://doi.org/10.5251/abjna.2011.2.7.1069.1071

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Over a year of trapping in Nigeria's New Calabar River, 1,572 fish | consisting of 1572 samples over a period of twelve months (February 2008- January 2009) in New Calabar River Nigeria (note: body; caught in traps) |
| 1,572 fish of 4.1 to 14.2 cm total length weighed 0.70 to 39.62 g | showed the length range 4.1cm-14.2cm, and weight from 0.70g- 39.62g (note: body; lengths are total length (methods); 1,572 is claimed by the sample-size claim) |
| total length | Measurements were carried out for total length (TL) using a measuring board (note: body) |
| Over a year of trapping | The fish was caught using traps made from bamboo. (note: body) |
| About 11 g on average, in a year-long sample of 1,572 wild fish trapped in a Nigerian river. | weight of 0.70-39.62g mean (11.16±7.29) (note: FAQ; 11.16 rounded to about 11; 1,572 is claimed by the next claim) |
| a year-long sample of 1,572 wild fish trapped in a Nigerian river | consisting of 1572 samples over a period of twelve months (February 2008- January 2009) in New Calabar River Nigeria (note: FAQ) |
| The heaviest of them weighed under 40 g. | weight from 0.70g- 39.62g (note: FAQ; 39.62 g is the top of the weight range, so the heaviest fish, and under 40) |
| weightKg: 0.011 | weight from 0.70g- 39.62g (note: battleStats.weightKg, mean 11.16 g over 1,572 fish) |

## Periophthalmus barbarus (Linnaeus, 1766), Atlantic mudskipper. FishBase.

https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Periophthalmus-barbarus.html

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| hunts crabs and insects on the mud | Adult feed chiefly on arthropods (crabs, insects, etc.) of the mud surface. (note: tagline) |
| West African | Africa: West-African coast, from Senegal to Angola (note: tagline) |
| Muddy ground and brackish estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps along the West African coast | Found on muddy substrates and in brackish waters of estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps (note: stats.habitat) |
| along the West African coast | Africa: West-African coast, from Senegal to Angola (note: stats.habitat) |
| Chiefly arthropods such as crabs and insects from the mud surface | Adult feed chiefly on arthropods (crabs, insects, etc.) of the mud surface. (note: stats.diet) |
| its eyes bulge out close together | Eyes protruding and close together with lower eyelid fold (note: body) |
| Adults feed chiefly on arthropods from the mud surface, such as crabs and insects | Adult feed chiefly on arthropods (crabs, insects, etc.) of the mud surface. (note: body) |
| Its range is the West African coast from Senegal to Angola. | Africa: West-African coast, from Senegal to Angola (note: body) |
| it spawns in burrows | Spawn in burrows (Ref. 3657 ) (note: body) |
| assessed in 2019 | Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 20 October 2019 (note: year) |
| FishBase lists a maximum of 14.7 cm standard length. | Max length : 14.7 cm SL male/unsexed (note: FAQ) |
| Reports of fish up to 250 mm long are probably other species, it says. | reports of larger specimens, up to 250 mm TL, are probably misidentifications of other species (note: FAQ) |
| The mudskipper is an amphibious air-breather that skips or walks across sand and mud in search of food. | Amphibious air-breather (Ref. 31184 ) that skips or walks on sand or mud in search of food (note: body) |
| Its pectoral fins have a long muscular lobe | Pectoral fins with a long muscular lobe (note: body) |
| FishBase gives a maximum length of 14.7 cm standard length | Max length : 14.7 cm SL male/unsexed (note: body) |
| a length at first maturity of about 9.6 cm | Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age Maturity: L m 9.6 (note: body) |
| It lives on muddy ground in brackish estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps | Found on muddy substrates and in brackish waters of estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps (note: body) |
| Along West Africa's Atlantic shore, between Senegal and Angola. | Africa: West-African coast, from Senegal to Angola (note: FAQ) |
| It turns up in freshwater now and then, but always close to the shore. | Occasionally found in freshwater, but always close to the shore (note: FAQ) |
| The Atlantic mudskipper skips or walks across sand and mud in search of food | Amphibious air-breather (Ref. 31184 ) that skips or walks on sand or mud in search of food (note: vibe.reason) |