Could an animal species evolve to use electricity?

Yesterday I was driving at night on an unlit road (nothing nefarious, I swear), and there was a truck behind me with a ridiculous amount of headlamps on, and catching a glimpse of it in my mirror it looked a bit like an angry animal. It got me to thinking, if there was an animal that could switch on headlights in the jungle, it could scare off quite a lot of predators.

Now I know that there are fish, like the electric eel (whose scientific name is "Electrophorus Electricus", which I find rather hilarious) that can use electricity for hunting and communication and self-defence. But I'm wondering if an entire species (like all types of cats for example) could have evolved to use electricity for similar purposes.

And I'm not talking properly Pikachu style, just channel enough electrons to create a bright light source for a limited amount of time, to scare off predators or to startle prey for example.

I don't know if this would be through bio-luminescence, like an angler fish, or more like an actual light bulb, by running electrons through some sort of natural filament to create the light. Whichever one is possible to create a significant amount of light really.

This animal doesn't necessarily have to have evolved on the Earth we live in now, it could have any conditions to evolve.

So my main points of the question are:

1. Could an animal evolve to use electricity which could power, let's say as an example, two 85 watt bulbs for 5-10 seconds?

2. Could an animal use this electricity to produce things like light for their survival and that of their family, be it through hunting or protection?

3. Bonus: If such an animal/species were to exist in a habitat on land (like in the mighty jungle), would other animals that currently exist on our planet be able to coexist with this animal, as its predator or its prey? Or would they need to evolve to be able to catch/escape it?

posted over 9 years ago

Mike.C.Ford‭

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