Love On The Seafloor: The Instinctive Architecture of the Pufferfish

Crop Circles Were Found Near Australia Research into this species continued when scientists found similar crop circles on Australia's North West Shelf. Marine ecologist at the University of Western Australia Todd Bond immediately knew what they were and he and his colleagues went on to found almost two dozen more designs. They reported their findings in the November 2020 Journal of Fish Biology. Although they didn't witness the pufferfish in action, the nests are identical to the ones found in Japan. They did catch footage of a little pufferfish leaving the formation. A major difference between these two areas is that Australia's circles appear on seafloors much deeper than those near Japan. This is strange since Australian pufferfish tend to live in more shallow water. "The 22 circle structures observed in north-west Australia were most likely produced by a male Torquigener sp. [pufferfish] for use as a nest," reads the study. "Similarities in structure morphology, notably the size, number of ridges and presence of an intricate central circle with two outer rings, make them comparable to those found in Japanese waters. "However, the circles discovered in Australia are more than 5500 km away from those in Japan and in significantly deeper water. It is unknown which species of Torquigener is responsible for producing the complex structures." So although the culprits may be the same white-spotted pufferfish found by Japan, Australia's seafloor may be housing a different species with similar habits — perhaps one entirely new to science.