Danionella Cerebrum is a newly discovered species of fish that can produce sounds exceeding 140 decibels, comparable to the sound of a jet engine during take-off. The translucent fish were originally identified in the 1980s, but the species was officially recognized in 2021. The species is about the size of a human fingernail, but it’s one of the loudest animals in the world. It uses a combination of sonic muscles and drumming cartilage to produce sounds as loud as a gunshot. High-speed video revealed that in order to produce the loud sounds, a rib located next to the fish’s swim bladder is moved by a special fatigue-resistant muscle into a piece of drumming cartilage. This apparatus accelerates the drumming cartilage with a force of over 2,000 g-force and shoots it against the swim bladder to produce a rapid, loud pulse. These pulses strung together to produce calls. The miniature fish are native to Myanmar, living in the shallow and turbid waters of the Asian country.
