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Sticklebacks in the Real World and in Images | ||
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Sticklebacks are featured on the Dutch guilder (currency, above) and a Swiss stamp. They also provide the name of a couple of rock bands (1, 2) and of a U.S. submarine. Perhaps the stickleback's greatest claim to popular culture fame is their appearance on the U.S. television quiz show Jeopardy. Game #4857 aired October 25, 2005. In the Double Jeopardy Round, this answer was for $2,000 in the category "Furred, Feathered, Finned": "Their dorsal spines give the fish shown here its name..." Unfortunately, none of the three contestants knew the question, but we all know what it is! "What is a stickleback fish?" Sticklebacks were immortalized in prose in Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher": | . |
"But what a horrible surprise! Instead of a smooth fat minnow, Mr. Jeremy landed little Jack Sharp the stickleback, covered with spines! The stickleback floundered about the boat, pricking and snapping until he was quite out of breath." (Illustration from "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher" by Beatrix Potter, copyright © Frederick Warne & Co., 1906, 2002, reproduced by permission of Frederick Warne & Co.) | ||
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Oh, and lest we forget, Nikolaas (Niko) Tinbergen (shown here performing what appears to be a naked handstand on a beach, from a feature called "The curious naturalist" in Nature 22 January 2004 427:293-294) shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on, and essentially development of the field of, natural animal behavior (ethology); his interest was motivated greatly by his experiences watching stickleback behaviors such as mating displays. | . |
A lab member recently found Stickleback wine at the local Whole Foods store. While we don't recommend making (or consuming) your own wine from Sticklebacks, this stuff is apparently pretty tasty. | ||
Page Last Updated: 16 May 2008
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