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Water flowing around obstacles creates vortices (patterns of swirling water). Many fish can detect these vortices, which can obscure the sound of approaching predators. Testing by Yuen Vanaelsuru, Otar Akasveti, and James Liao using models of three head shapes—narrow (low ratio of width to length), intermediate, and wide (high ratio of width to length)—suggested that large vortices with intermediate heads would be better able than narrow-headed fish to distinguish between vortices and general turbulence in the water. A second research team has therefore hypothesized that in low-visibility conditions, intermediate-headed fish will be more likely than narrow-headed fish to detect predators that create large vortices.