The Evolutionary Significance of Blinking Fish.

Mudskippers, an amphibious fish, have evolved a blinking behavior that serves many of the same purposes as human blinking, providing clues as to how and why blinking might have evolved during the transition to life on land in our own ancestors. The study shows that blinking may be among the suite of traits that evolved to allow the transition to life on land in tetrapods. The researchers analyzed the behavior with high-speed videos and compared the anatomy of mudskippers with that of a closely related water-bound fish that doesn't blink.