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Anatomy & senses

Electric eel · Amazon knifefishes whose stacked electrocytes taught Humboldt, Volta arguments and a 2019 species split.

Every electric eel is a stack of tissues that must agree under season, prey and human pressure.

Meters below repeat the six atlas scores as gauges; they are relative marks, not laboratory certificates.

Systems

Support and integument

An elongated knifefish with a long anal fin and three electric organs of stacked electrocytes. True eels they are not; the battery is the point of the body.

Feeding apparatus

Night hunting of fish and invertebrates. High-voltage volleys are metabolically expensive; weak pulses map the murk more cheaply. The feeding kit sets the ecological-role score relative to the other 23 types.

Respiration and circulation

Gas exchange and blood flow are tuned to the electric eel energy budget -- dive, hover, sprint or bulk browse -- not to a generic vertebrate template.

Senses and neural control

Active electrolocation plus the same organ used as a club. Eyes are secondary in tannin water.

Reproduction and ontogeny

Replacement rate is the hidden resilience number. Air-breathing helps a stagnant pool; a dam and a drought do not care about voltage. LC is a range statement.

Thermoregulation and salt/water

Climate and osmoregulation bound where a electric eel can close its daily budget. Field sites in the English-speaking world still measure that envelope first.

Relative meters

24
Burst / travel speed
25
Behavioural flexibility
28
Geographic / migratory reach
77
Population security
28
Cultural charge
34
Ecosystem leverage
Burst / travel speed
Speed 24/100 relative to the 24-type atlas -- not a race ranking.
Behavioural flexibility
Intelligence 25/100 as social and problem-solving depth, not a best-species mark.
Geographic / migratory reach
Range 28/100 -- how widely the type occupies or crosses basins.
Population security
Resilience 77/100: high means more secure (Least Concern or recovered), low means threatened. Electrophorus electricus is Least Concern on a basin scale; local drought, dams and the pet trade are the finer risks.
Cultural charge
Cultural impact 28/100 across art, law and media -- relative, not a popularity contest.
Ecosystem leverage
Ecological role 34/100 -- engineer, keystone, pump or specialist.

Hotspots

Primary weapon or tool

The bill, teeth, trunk, pouch or talon that field guides name first -- and that trade or conflict usually targets.

Energy store

Fat, cache, crop or bamboo hours that decide whether a season closes.

Natal or breeding site

A redd, eyrie, den, anemone or ice lair -- often a single-point risk (Izumi, Natron, Gir).

Sensory organ

Active electrolocation plus the same organ used as a club. Eyes are secondary in tannin water.

Human interface

Hunt, tourism, film or quota -- the surface where electric eel biology meets English-language law.

Tissues & materials

Keratin and integument

Feathers, fur, baleen or skin plates -- tissues, not metals. Moult and wear are the maintenance cycle.

Bone and cartilage

Load paths for stoop, lunge, knuckle-walk or hover. Marrow and pneumatic bone differ by family.

Muscle and tendon

The expensive tissue that speed and intelligence scores only hint at.

Fat, oil and glycogen

Stores that migration, fast and lactation spend. A market for those stores (oil, ivory, fin) is a historical threat.

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