Organ Generates Electricity

Biological Strategy

Fish

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Image: SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC / Public Domain - No restrictions

Transform Electrical Energy

Electric energy comes from electric potential energy, which is energy associated with a living system’s electric charge or its position relative to other electrically charged objects or living systems.

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Modify Electric Charge

Harnessing the power of electricity can be a powerful way for organisms to get energy. An electric charge can be positive or negative. When matter with an electric charge is near other charged particles, it will either be ‘repulsed’ or ‘attracted’ to the matter based on the charge. From electric eels to oriental hornets, learn about the different ways organisms use electric charges to their advantage.

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Fish

Class Agnatha (“without jaws”), Class Chondrichthyes (“cartilage fish”), Superclass Osteichthyes (“bone fish”): Sharks, eels, snapper, hagfish

The fish are a diverse group, comprising multiple classes within Phylum Animalia. The most well-known classes are Chondrichthyes, which has sharks and rays, and superclass Osteichthyes, which has all bony fish like cod and tuna. Unlike other vertebrates, fish only live in water. They use special adaptations like fins, gills, and swim bladders to survive. Most are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature depends on the water temperature around them. Over half of all vertebrates are fish. They’re found from the bottom of the sea to high mountain lakes.

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Electric organs of certain fish generate electricity using additive energy from stacked cells to generate a current.

Image: Alexander Graetz / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

An electric ray (torpedo) showing location of electric organ and electrocytes stacked within it

Image: Louis Roule / Public Domain - No restrictions

Electric organs of the Torpedo

Image: SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory; Collection of Brandi Noble, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC / Public Domain - No restrictions

“In certain fishes, however, we find electric organs, consisting of closely packed, orderly arranged groups of cells [electrocytes] whose only known function is the production of an electric field outside the body…The electric fields range from very weak to very strong (500 Volts or more). A typical electric organ of myogenic origin consists of several stacks of orderly arranged, flattened cells with each cell innervated separately by a spinal electromotor neuron. Because the whole organ is enclosed by a tight jacket of connective tissue, there are only little shunt currents, and the voltage differences generated by the individual electrocytes add up” (Kramer 1996:18-19).

Last Updated May 10, 2018

References

Book

Electroreception and communication in fishes (Vol. 42)

Gustav Fischer. | Bernd Kramer

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