Tiny fish, huge mystery: the rockhead poacher’s skull acts like a natural drum. 🌊🐟

Meet the rockhead poacher, nature’s tiniest drummer! This small armored fish uses its bowl-shaped skull and ribs to communicate underwater in noisy tidal zones.

The rockhead poacher (Bothragonus swanii) is a remarkable small fish inhabiting the shallow intertidal zones of the northeastern Pacific, ranging from California to Alaska, and is famous for its bizarre, bowl-shaped cranial pit that rivals its brain in size.

This tiny armored fish, no larger than an index finger, wedges itself between rocks for camouflage, often resembling a sea sponge to avoid predators.