Your Fish May Have Recognized You And You Never Even Knew It

You remember how your goldfish had been unblinking and caring as a pet? Well, if you think all the horror you put it through when you tapped on his glass won't be remembered, you're wrong.

In a study published in Science Reports, scientists from the United Kingdom and Australia trained a species of fish to recognize human faces. It took a bit of practice, but the archerfish that scientists were studying were able to pick out specific faces from a lineup with accuracy, indicating that these species can recognize faces, even though people thought otherwise.

This discovery is important because this is the first time that fish demonstrated such ability. CNN noted that to be able to do this, species will have to be able to pick up subtle differences in features, which is why primates and other animals with larger and more complex brains are able to do this.

Fish, on the other hand, have tiny brains, and as far as their evolution goes, there is no need for them to even recognize human faces, which is why the study's results were found to be astounding.

This raises several questions - for instance, could your pet fish recognize you? Or in a more fun sense, could Dory find her family if it were real-life and not a Pixar film?

Dr. Cait Newport, a research fellow in Oxford University's zoology department and co-author of the study said that there is a possibility that it could happen. She shared, "There's something like 30,000 species of fish. A blind fish is not going to be able to do this, sharks are fish and they can see color -- so maybe."

But how were they able to train these fish? Simple. Apparently, as Newport said, it's very similar to training your pet dog, except that to know whether or not these species recognize you, they spit in your eye - not lick you to say "hi."