https://phys.org/news/2024-09-sea-robins-leg-fins-seafloor.html Phys.org Topics * Week's top * Latest news * Unread news * Subscribe [ ] Science X Account [ ] [ ] [*] Remember me Sign In Click here to sign in with or Forget Password? Not a member? Sign up Learn more * Nanotechnology * Physics * Earth * Astronomy & Space * Chemistry * Biology * Other Sciences * Medical Xpress Medicine * Tech Xplore Technology [INS::INS] * * share this! * 11 * Twit * Share * Email 1. Home 2. Biology 3. Plants & Animals 1. Home 2. Biology 3. Evolution * * * --------------------------------------------------------------------- September 26, 2024 Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread Sea robins use leg-like fins to taste and navigate seafloor, researchers discover by Harvard University This fish has legs Sea robin (Prionotus carolinus). Credit: Anik Grearson Sea robins are ocean fish particularly suited to their bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Six leg-like appendages make them so adept at scurrying, digging, and finding prey that other fish tend to hang out with them and pilfer their spoils. A chance encounter in 2019 with these strange, legged fish at Cape Cod's Marine Biological Laboratory was enough to inspire Corey Allard to want to study them. "We saw they had some sea robins in a tank, and they showed them to us, because they know we like weird animals," said Allard, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Nicholas Bellono, professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The Bellono lab investigates the sensory biology and cellular physiology of many marine animals, including octopuses, jellyfish, and sea slugs. "Sea robins are an example of a species with a very unusual, very novel trait," Allard continued. "We wanted to use them as a model to ask, 'How do you make a new organ?'" Sea robin. Credit: Anik Grearson, MBARI, CC BY-SA Allard's ensuing deep dive into sea robin biology led to a collaboration with Stanford researchers studying the fish's developmental genetics and culminated in back-to-back papers in Current Biology, co-authored by Bellono and Amy Herbert and David Kingsley at Stanford University, and others. [INS::INS] The studies provide the most comprehensive understanding to date on how sea robins use their legs, what genes control the emergence of those legs, and how these animals could be used as a conceptual framework for evolutionary adaptations. Sea robin "legs" are actually extensions of their pectoral fins, of which they have three on each side. Allard first sought to determine whether the legs are bona fide sensory organs, which scientists had suspected but never confirmed. He ran experiments observing captive sea robins hunting prey, in which they alternate between short bouts of swimming and "walking." They also occasionally scratch at the sand surface to find buried prey, like mussels and other shellfish, without visual cues. The researchers realized that the legs were sensitive to both mechanical and chemical stimuli. They even buried capsules containing only single chemicals, and the fish could easily find them. Serendipity led to another chance discovery. They received a fresh shipment of fish mid-study that looked like the originals, but the new fish, Allard said, did not dig and find buried prey or capsules like the originals could. "I thought they were just some duds, or maybe the setup didn't work," Bellono recalled. It turned out the researchers had acquired a different species of sea robin. In their studies, they ended up characterizing them both--Prionotus carolinus, which dig to find buried prey and are highly sensitive to touch and chemical signals, and P. evolans, which lack these sensory capabilities and use their legs for locomotion and probing, but not for digging. Examining the leg differences between the two fish, they found that the digging variety's were shovel-shaped and covered in protrusions called papillae, similar to our taste buds. The non-digging fish's legs were rod-shaped and lacked papillae. Based on these differences, the researchers concluded that papillae are evolutionary sub-specializations. Allard's paper describing the evolution of sea robins' novel sensory organs included analysis of sea robin specimens from the Museum of Comparative Zoology to examine leg morphologies across species and time. The digging species are restricted to only a few locations, he found, suggesting a relatively recent evolution of this trait. Studying sea robin legs wasn't just about hanging out with weird animals (although that was fun too). The walking fish are a potentially powerful model organism to compare specialized traits, and to teach us about how evolution allows for adaptation to very specific environments. About 6 million years ago, humans evolved the ability to walk upright, separating from their primate ancestors. Bipedalism is a defining feature of our species, and we only know so much about how, when, and why that change occurred. Sea robins and their adaptation to living on the ocean floor could offer clues. For example, there are genetic transcription factors that control the development of the sea robins' legs that are also found in the limbs of other animals, including humans. The second study that was focused on genetics included the Kingsley lab at Stanford; Italian physicist Agnese Seminara; and biologist Maude Baldwin from the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and comprehensively examined the genetic underpinnings of the walking fish's unusual trait. The researchers used techniques including transcriptomic and genomic editing to identify which gene transcription factors are used in leg formation and function in the sea robins. They also generated hybrids between two sea robin species with distinct leg shapes to explore the genetic basis for these differences. "Amy and Corey did a lot to describe this animal, and I think it's pretty rare to go from the description of the behavior, to the description of the molecules, to the description of an evolutionary hypothesis," Bellono said. "I think this is a nice blueprint for how one poses a scientific question and rigorously follows it with a curious and open mind." More information: Evolution of novel sensory organs in fish with legs, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.014. www.cell.com/current-biology/f ... 0960-9822(24)01126-6 Ancient developmental genes underlie evolutionary novelties in walking fish, Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.042. www.cell.com/current-biology/f ... 0960-9822(24)01157-6 Journal information: Current Biology Provided by Harvard University Citation: Sea robins use leg-like fins to taste and navigate seafloor, researchers discover (2024, September 26) retrieved 1 October 2024 from https://phys.org/news/ 2024-09-sea-robins-leg-fins-seafloor.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Explore further Taking a lesson in evolutionary adaptation from octopus, squid --------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 shares * Facebook * Twitter * Email Feedback to editors * Featured * Last Comments * Popular First-ever teleportation of logical qubit using fault-tolerant methods 10 hours ago 0 New assessment suggests Anthropocene started in the 1950s Sep 30, 2024 0 Webb detects fast outflow in the host galaxy of a luminous quasar Sep 30, 2024 0 Microplastic hotspots forming in offshore UK North Sea, researchers find Sep 30, 2024 0 Saturday Citations: Octopuses as shift supervisors for fish; universe confounds standard model; extremely old cheese Sep 28, 2024 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- [gif] Southern California study finds high levels of airborne plasticizers 1 hour ago [gif] Pollination shifts in Caribbean after Hurricane Maria demonstrate ecological resilience 2 hours ago [gif] Scientists find plausible geological setting that may have sparked life on Earth 2 hours ago [gif] Researchers develop first banana plant resistant to TR4 and black sigatoka 2 hours ago [gif] Predicting river flow dynamics using stable isotopes for improved ecosystem health 2 hours ago [gif] Are plants and fungi trading carbon for nutrients? Not likely, say researchers 3 hours ago [gif] Webb researchers discover lensed supernova, confirm Hubble tension 3 hours ago [gif] Seeing double: Designing drugs that target 'twin' cancer proteins 3 hours ago [gif] Madagascar's mining rush has caused no more deforestation than farming, study finds 4 hours ago [gif] Scientists explore microbial diversity in sourdough starters 4 hours ago --------------------------------------------------------------------- Relevant PhysicsForums posts Are you concerned about toxic chemicals in plastic food packaging? 2 hours ago Aging Effects for Hearts in Microgravity 4 hours ago Here comes COVID-19 version BA.2, BA.4, BA.5,... 5 hours ago Using Destructive Interference to Treat Tinnitus Sep 25, 2024 Why does a series of pulses generate a pitch? Sep 19, 2024 Therapeutic Interfering Particle Sep 18, 2024 More from Biology and Medical --------------------------------------------------------------------- [INS::INS] * Related Stories [gif] Taking a lesson in evolutionary adaptation from octopus, squid Apr 13, 2023 [gif] Anatomical study of the mudskipper reveals their adaptations to walking on land Jul 18, 2024 [gif] How fish evolved to walk Mar 3, 2023 [gif] The importance of the paradise fish in evolutionary and behavioral genetics research Jun 5, 2024 [gif] New data from fossil shows changes in axial skeleton that foreshadow the evolution of walking Apr 3, 2024 * Recommended for you [gif] Scientists find plausible geological setting that may have sparked life on Earth 2 hours ago [gif] Pollination shifts in Caribbean after Hurricane Maria demonstrate ecological resilience 2 hours ago [gif] Are plants and fungi trading carbon for nutrients? Not likely, say researchers 3 hours ago [gif] 'Who's a good boy?' Humans use dog-specific voices for better canine comprehension 5 hours ago [gif] Study shows that wild animals also get accustomed to humans 6 hours ago [gif] New study sheds light on ancient protoribosome and its role in early life evolution 7 hours ago Load comments (0) Let us know if there is a problem with our content Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request [-- please select one -- ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Your message to the editors [ ] Your email (only if you want to be contacted back) [ ] Send Feedback Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors. Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. E-mail the story Sea robins use leg-like fins to taste and navigate seafloor, researchers discover Your friend's email [ ] Your email [ ] [ ] I would like to subscribe to Science X Newsletter. Learn more Your name [ ] Note Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Your message [ ] Send Newsletter sign up Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. [ ] Subscribe More information Privacy policy Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account. Remove ads Maybe later Medical Xpress Medical Xpress Medical research advances and health news Tech Xplore Tech Xplore The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances Science X Science X The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web Newsletters [ ] Subscribe Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletter are free features that allow you to receive your favorite sci-tech news updates in your email inbox Follow us * * * * * Top * Home * Search * Mobile version * Help * FAQ * About * Contact * Science X Account * Premium Account * Archive * News wire * Android app * iOS app * RSS feeds * Push notification (c) Phys.org 2003 - 2024 powered by Science X Network Privacy policy Terms of use E-mail newsletter [ ] Subscribe Follow us * * * * It appears that you are currently using Ad Blocking software. What are the consequences? x Quantcast