The so-called “mirror test” was created in 1970 by Gordon Gallup and, in theory, it would measure the ability of an animal to have self-awareness of itself, based on its ability to recognize itself in a mirror.
The self-consciousness remains controversial, but the truth is that to date only primates have passed, other animals such as elephants and dolphins, and some varieties of birds such as crows.
But never had a fish been so.
So far, because an experiment conducted by a team at the University of Osaka has revealed that members of the Labridae family, they are able to do so.
These small fish the size of a human finger were the protagonists of an experiment in which, when put in front of a mirror, the researchers observed that they moved and behaved in a completely different way than they did when they were in front of another specimen of the same species.
Later, they were marked with a dye on one part of the body, so that the fish could only see the spot if they looked in the mirror.
And what happened is that they spent more time adopting postures that made it easier for them to see the stain on their reflected image.
