Some science stories reveal just a small glimpse of the natural world by giant squids and fish with legs are on the other end of the spectrum. Monday the Discovery Channel revealed that is had obtained the first footage of a Giant Squid in its natural habitat. Details are scant on the first ever video of Giant Squid but it is slated to broadcast on the show Curiosity for its season finale in January 2013. The announcement of the Giant Squid footage makes no mention of which ocean this took place, so no indication of which species of Architeuthis was filmed, not that it matters because the Giant Squid episode of Curiosity is sure to be watched around the world. [Discovery]
Equally big news yet perhaps not quite as dramatic as living, moving giant squids, new research published this week has revealed the development of ‘legs’ on the common zebra danio, also known as zebrafish. Genetic scientists have known for years that various body parts of all vertebrates is controlled by a group of genes known as ‘HOX Genes’. One particular gene HOXD13 is involved in the development of limbs, and by over expressing this gene the mad scientists created zebrafish embryos with leg-like fins. Since zebra danios already enjoy/suffer from genetic modification that makes them fluorescent colors, aka Glofish, it doesn’t seem like a far stretch that we might someday see walking zebrafish in the aquarium of the future. [Popsci]
