My English essay on eels ------
Eels
Eels are very interesting creatures that we don't know a lot about. One of the crazy things that we don't know about them is how they reproduce, but it is nuts how we thought they did.
The reproduction of eels is shrouded in mystery. According to the Biodiversity Center of the University of Texas "No one had seen them laying eggs, giving birth, or mating. To add to the mystery, eels lack genitalia, and determining their sex requires dissection and careful examination of their gonads." Eels don't have the organs to reproduce which leads to the question how are there any more eels? Even as far back as ancient Greece the Greeks were troubled by eel reproduction, History Today said "Since the beginnings of Greek science, it had been recognized that all animals owed their origins to some form of reproduction" Having this said, Aristotle thought that eels came from mud of course, not his brightest moment. People from the medieval time period thought that eels were horsetails in the water. Now a lot of people have tried to solve the mystery including Sigmund Freud, who is "most known as the famous neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis." according to the Biodiversity Center of the University of Texas. Freud developed theories such as the "Oedipus complex" or "Penis envy," along with he studied zoology, and had quite a time with European eels. When he was young he bought around 400 eels to see if he could find the reproductive organs but to no avail. He even tried to find the organs through dissection only to find some strange looking things but nothing he could state was the reproductive organs.
Current scientific thought believes that eels reproduction has something to do with eels being metamorphic creatures as they have multiple stages to their life. One of the reasons it took so long to realize this is because we thought that the different stages of an eel's life were completely different eels, like if people thought that a caterpillar and a butterfly were a completely different species with no connection. Eels have a few stages more than a caterpillar. The eel's first stage is the larva. The second stage is the glass eels. Next are the Yellow eels. Lastly the silver eels. The larva or the Leptocephalus are immediately after hatching out of the egg, they are flat and clear and drift with the currents. Glass Eels are shaped more like your average eel but are still clear, hence their name the Glass Eel they can swim better than the larva but are still cared for by the currents. Next, the yellow eels recognizable by their yellowish brown color, have an eelish shape and their swimming proficiency is greatly increased. Yellow eels are like the teenage developed eels. After the yellow eels are the silver eels and unsurprisingly these eels have a silver appearance, they have white bellies and they have anywhere from silver to black backs. The silver eels are what you think of when you think of an eel and at their adult stage.
Eel development and reproduction is still one of the many underwater mysteries that lie beneath the surface of the water, but one thing is for certain the eels have figured it out, and one day we will too.
