A team of scientists have found that fish can easily distinguish one species from another- based entirely on the shape of the ultraviolet (UV) patterns on their faces.

The study says, "Although scientists have long known that some animals have UV vision, the new findings published online on February 25th in Current Biology suggest that this sense can be keener and perhaps more useful as a "communication channel" than had been anticipated".

Ulrike Siebeck of the University of Queensland, Australia, says, "Researchers have been assuming for a long time that UV vision is not very good-and that it is only useful for detecting the presence and absence of UV light, or objects in front of UV bright backgrounds".

"The exciting thing is that we can show that these fish can tell the difference between intricate UV patterns-something that was not expected based on previous assumptions."

Siebeck added, "The ability to see in this visual field is likely quite convenient for the fish".

"If you think about it in simple terms, fish have to be inconspicuous if they want to go undetected by their predators and prey, but at the same time, they have to be conspicuous if they want to attract the attention of potential mates, for example. Using UV patterns to do this is a clever way to maximize both at the same time-they are still inconspicuous to predators but very conspicuous to other fish with UV vision", he explained.