Fish are, without a doubt, some of the stranger creatures among us. They can glow. They can shock. They can change their gender. They can change color or mimic other species. Some fish can even climb trees. They are also extremely devoted parents.
The little zebrafish is another amazing parent who, in their death throes, will give their offspring molecules that make them mature faster, so they may be able to escape whatever it was that killed off the parents. Apparently, this molecule distribution was enough to interest scientists, for 2 species of zebrafish were experimented with (detailed in Biology Letters).
Native to southeastern Himalayan streams and popular amongst aquarium fish, the zebrafish produced some interesting results in the experiments. The Pearl Danio developed their hearts at a faster pace, when exposed to the molecules collected from dead adults. However, the Zebrafish developed its muscles faster, when exposed to the molecules. In either case, both embryo types developed a heartbeat 10% quicker than normal, when exposed to the molecules.
“Being able to speed up development by even an hour could reduce the time they are in this potentially vulnerable state of not being able to swim away from predators while they are confined in the eggs case.” … “We do believe that this response would be a way in which chemicals from adult zebrafish might warn its offspring of potential danger. In terms of evolution, it isn’t believed that this was the original function of alarm substance—research by other groups suggests it probably evolved as a defense against pathogens, acting as a healing agent when the adult’s skin is damaged, but secondarily could take on this role of warning other fish of potential danger.”
The next step in the research will be to find what kind of changes (if any) the fish go through later in life, due to the speeding up process. Can you imagine what people would be like if they went through a similar process?
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