Dr Andrew Gillis shows us an elephant fish embryo, which live in their egg and feed off of their yolk supply for 7 to 10 months before hatching out as a completely self-sufficient juvenile.

Elephant fish are cartilaginous fishes, and are distant cousins of sharks, skates and stingrays.

Dr Andrew Gillis

Under the Microscope is a collection of videos that show glimpses of the natural and man-made world in stunning close-up. You can see the rest of the series here:io9.com

Dr Gillis:

"This is a picture of an elephant fish embryo.  The elephant fish lives in deep water off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, but migrates annually into shallow coastal bays to lay their eggs. I study the embryonic development of elephant fish, by collecting their eggs by SCUBA diving at their egg-laying grounds. Normally, an elephant fish embryo will live in their egg and feed off of their yolk supply for 7 to 10 months before hatching out as a completely self-sufficient juvenile. However, these embryos may also be cultured outside of their egg cases, as seen here. This allows us to observe and photograph the development and growth of this unusual fish."

The diameter of the petri dish in the elephant fish picture is 10cm.

More info:

http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-andrew-gillis

Music by Peter Nickalls:

peternickalls.com

Graduate School of Life Sciences and its annual Poster and Image Competitions

http://www.gradschl.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/skills/events/annual/pandi


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