I started so I’ll Finnish…
This week’s ALAW draws on the anatomy of certain fish species, notably salmonids and many catfishes, and concerns what was once considered to be a vestigial feature, the adipose fin.
Adipose means fat, but ironically the root of the adipose fin is no longer considered to be a site of fat storage. The name stuck anyway, and recent research suggests that it is not, in fact, vestigial, but may act as a flow sensor ahead of the tail fin to improve manoeuverability in turbulent waters.
However, ‘manoeuverability’ is not a word that I would associate with this week’s theme; a Finnish fisheries scientist (who I shall not identify) that a former colleague nicknamed with reference to his gargantuan size; the pun is obvious, but it still makes me laugh:
A scientist whose girth was akin
To a humongously large garbage bin
Studied fish in the sea
With Finnish esprit
So we called him ‘The Adipose Finn’
