Research History
In the 1770s the electric organs of the torpedo and electric eel were already the subject of Royal society papers by Hunter, Walsh and Williamson, and they appear to have influenced the thinking of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, the founders of electrophysiology and electrochemistry.
In the 19th century, Charles Darwin discussed the electric organ in his Origin of Species as a likely example of convergent evolution: "But if the electric organs had been inherited from one ancient progenitor thus provided, we might have expected that all electric fishes would have been specially related to each other…I am inclined to believe that in nearly the same way as two men have sometimes independently hit on the very same invention, so natural selection, working for the good of each being and taking advantage of analogous variations, has sometimes modified in very nearly the same manner two parts in two organic beings".
In the 20th Century, electric organs have received extensive study, for example Lissman's 1951 paper and his review of their function and evolution in 1958.
Read more about this topic: Electric Organ
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