Treehugger reports on the work of marine scientists at Brazil's Guaruja Aquarium, who have added a plastic window onto a shark egg so they can watch the fish develop.
In the photo above you can see the fetal bamboo shark attached to a large yolk sac. The video below gives a better view.
After noting that the unborn shark was unaffected by the window on its neonatal world, researchers removed the entire animal from its purse and allowed it to grow inside a perspex container. The work will help shed more light on how young sharks develop, an understanding of which is crucial to the conservation of threatened shark species.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
In The Womb: Extreme Animals
Premiering Sunday, May 10th at 9 PM on National Geographic Channel
I first heard about this weekend's amazing special, In the Womb: Extreme Animals way back in October of last year. It was my interest in the incredible images that come from In The Womb that made me…
The hammerhead shark's head is one of the strangest in the animal world. The flattened hammer, known as a 'cephalofoil', looks plain bizarre on the face of an otherwise streamlined fish, and its purpose is still the subject of debate. Is it an organic metal detector that allows the shark to sweep…
tags: guest blog essay, fishkeeping, aquariums, Celebes Rainbowfish, Celebes Sailfish, Telmatherina ladigesi, pets
Adult male Celebes Rainbowfish (also known as a Celebes Sailfish), Telmatherina ladigesi.
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me so I can award proper attribution. [larger view].
As…
tags: Close Encounter with a Whale Shark in the Gulf of Mexico, marine biology, field research, research, technology, whale shark, Rhincodon typus, satellite tags, Gulf of Mexico, BP, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, streaming video
Whale Shark, Rhincodon typus…
I read the headline as
"Researchers install Windows® on shark egg"
@Goat Rider
haha, like this.
Hah! Exactly like that!
This is amazing! I recently read (in Jean-Paul Gagnon's 'the democracy paradox', see http://eprints.qut.edu.au/31691/1/31691.pdf) that communication is essential for democracy to grow. We should apply the same principle to marine science and see if we communicate it more it too will grow! Maybe it will impact democracy in a way that the government will fund it more so that more of this great science can continue!
Does anybody know what the red thread like things hanging off of it are? I'm no developmental biologist...I just know basics like blastocyst and such..
I too read 'Windows'. That was cool, but now I'm disappointed.
@megan I would hazard a guess and suggest that the thread like things are external gills (like on a Axolotl).
I wonder how early they could install the window. It would be neat to get to see the really early stages embryo development. It looks like the shark is pretty far along in all of these photos, though.
I'll be impressed when it runs Linux
XP, Vista or 7?