#vertebrates — Public Fediverse posts

#Eyes of the world's longest-living #vertebrate, the #GreenlandShark, show little #ageing
Greenland #shark (Somniosus microcephalus) can live for up to 400 years in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living #vertebrates on Earth. And according to new research its seemingly undead eyes are fully functioning and barely deteriorate even after a century. Unravelling the shark's anti-ageing secrets could benefit human eye health.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-01-10/eyes-dont-age-for-greenland-shark/106019818

#Eyes of the world's longest-living #vertebrate, the #GreenlandShark, show little #ageing
Greenland #shark (Somniosus microcephalus) can live for up to 400 years in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living #vertebrates on Earth. And according to new research its seemingly undead eyes are fully functioning and barely deteriorate even after a century. Unravelling the shark's anti-ageing secrets could benefit human eye health.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-01-10/eyes-dont-age-for-greenland-shark/106019818

#Eyes of the world's longest-living #vertebrate, the #GreenlandShark, show little #ageing
Greenland #shark (Somniosus microcephalus) can live for up to 400 years in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living #vertebrates on Earth. And according to new research its seemingly undead eyes are fully functioning and barely deteriorate even after a century. Unravelling the shark's anti-ageing secrets could benefit human eye health.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-01-10/eyes-dont-age-for-greenland-shark/106019818

#Eyes of the world's longest-living #vertebrate, the #GreenlandShark, show little #ageing
Greenland #shark (Somniosus microcephalus) can live for up to 400 years in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living #vertebrates on Earth. And according to new research its seemingly undead eyes are fully functioning and barely deteriorate even after a century. Unravelling the shark's anti-ageing secrets could benefit human eye health.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-01-10/eyes-dont-age-for-greenland-shark/106019818

#Eyes of the world's longest-living #vertebrate, the #GreenlandShark, show little #ageing
Greenland #shark (Somniosus microcephalus) can live for up to 400 years in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living #vertebrates on Earth. And according to new research its seemingly undead eyes are fully functioning and barely deteriorate even after a century. Unravelling the shark's anti-ageing secrets could benefit human eye health.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-01-10/eyes-dont-age-for-greenland-shark/106019818

You can hold on to your butts thanks to #DNA that evolved in #fish
Making digits seems to involve #gene activity that was needed to make a #cloaca.
Fish that limbed #vertebrates evolved from don't have obvious digit equivalents, most common types of fish just have a large collection of rays supporting their fins.
It turns out hox gene activity in digits isn't the ancestral state; instead, it seems to have #evolved separately in the ray-finned fish and vertebrate lineages.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/distinct-digits-may-have-evolved-by-using-dna-that-makes-the-cloaca/

You can hold on to your butts thanks to #DNA that evolved in #fish
Making digits seems to involve #gene activity that was needed to make a #cloaca.
Fish that limbed #vertebrates evolved from don't have obvious digit equivalents, most common types of fish just have a large collection of rays supporting their fins.
It turns out hox gene activity in digits isn't the ancestral state; instead, it seems to have #evolved separately in the ray-finned fish and vertebrate lineages.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/distinct-digits-may-have-evolved-by-using-dna-that-makes-the-cloaca/

You can hold on to your butts thanks to #DNA that evolved in #fish
Making digits seems to involve #gene activity that was needed to make a #cloaca.
Fish that limbed #vertebrates evolved from don't have obvious digit equivalents, most common types of fish just have a large collection of rays supporting their fins.
It turns out hox gene activity in digits isn't the ancestral state; instead, it seems to have #evolved separately in the ray-finned fish and vertebrate lineages.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/distinct-digits-may-have-evolved-by-using-dna-that-makes-the-cloaca/

You can hold on to your butts thanks to #DNA that evolved in #fish
Making digits seems to involve #gene activity that was needed to make a #cloaca.
Fish that limbed #vertebrates evolved from don't have obvious digit equivalents, most common types of fish just have a large collection of rays supporting their fins.
It turns out hox gene activity in digits isn't the ancestral state; instead, it seems to have #evolved separately in the ray-finned fish and vertebrate lineages.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/distinct-digits-may-have-evolved-by-using-dna-that-makes-the-cloaca/

You can hold on to your butts thanks to #DNA that evolved in #fish
Making digits seems to involve #gene activity that was needed to make a #cloaca.
Fish that limbed #vertebrates evolved from don't have obvious digit equivalents, most common types of fish just have a large collection of rays supporting their fins.
It turns out hox gene activity in digits isn't the ancestral state; instead, it seems to have #evolved separately in the ray-finned fish and vertebrate lineages.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/09/distinct-digits-may-have-evolved-by-using-dna-that-makes-the-cloaca/

The largest #cartilaginousfish is the #whaleshark, the largest/heaviest Actinopterygii is the sunfish. Due to the #phylogenetic situation in early #vertebrates, when using the general term "#fish", one should be aware that this is a #paraphyletic group.
© #StefanFWirth Berlin

My article on X
https://x.com/wirthstef/status/1843663461059813801?t=GxBElm6qp9nT93rN_E2_jQ&s=19

Photos
#sunfish, Denmark, by Per-Ola Norman, 2009, the © holder published into pub. domain

Whale Shark, by Sh.
ElkCloner, 2012, licensed  Cr. Commons Attr-ShareAlike 3.0 Unp.

Researchers explore the #hagfish #genome, reconstruct the early genomic history of #vertebrates.

#evolution #phylogenomics

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-explore-hagfish-genome-reconstruct-early.html

How #squid and #octopus get their big brains https://phys.org/news/2022-11-squid-octopus-big-brains.html

#Cephalopod retinal development shows vertebrate-like mechanisms of #neurogenesis: Francesca Napoli et al. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01672-4

The two independently evolved very large nervous systems (of #vertebrates and #cephalopods) are using the same mechanisms to build them. What that suggests is that those mechanisms the #animals use during development may be important for building a big #NervousSystem.