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submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago

How the fuck do you accidentally create a fish hybrid

[-] KnitWit@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Uh, my time to shine? Back in grad school I used to clone paddlefish (gynogenesis) by heat shocking freshly fertilized paddlefish eggs at the right time so that the egg is activated but the males dna is never incorporated. Paddlefish and sturgeon, while looking totally different, are actually fairly closely related (they had a common ancestor like 200 mya) and so the chemical reactions take place to get everything going. But they are also distinct enough that if the timing isn’t right and the father’s dna accidentally gets incorporated, they create these hybrids. The hybrids are important because its the only way to identify males, which this whole process is designed to exclude. The reason you’d want to do this is the production of caviar in which males are of no value and cannot be easily identified for years.

Now, I was in Kentucky, and we were breeding paddlefish (the colbert report had a segment on ‘kentucky tuna’ that the economics professor terribly tried to promote if you can find it) for the non-existent paddlefish caviar market as opposed to breeding sturgeon like they did in this study, but its the same general principle at play. The inly real difference is that unlike these hybrids that could apparently grow to juvenile or adult status, the paddlefish mother hybrids were very much dead within a week of hatching and were obviously deformed at hatching.

[-] RusAD@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 days ago

Don't quote me on that, but as far as I understand it, the scientists needed a control group for some experiment in breeding one of those species of fish, so they paired it with a different species, so far removed evolutionarily that the scientists believed there's 0% chance of hybridization. Like there's 0% chance of getting a hybrid of a platypus and a polar bear, for example. But then, against all odds and expectations, these two species of fish have produced a hybrid.

[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 2 days ago

Life, uh, finds a way

[-] musubibreakfast@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

The Polar Platybear has a bill, is amphibious, venomous too, with razor sharp claws, stands 10 feet tall and weighs about 1300 pounds.

[-] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago

The Australian Bearypus, however, is a critical fail ecologically and economically.

In nature, the 3 lb (1.5ish kg) critter has a snout with grinding plates, claw-less paws, a wide tail and is covered in a thick layer of white fur. Although capable of swimming, the fur traps too much air, so they float like balloons on the water. They require a very cool environment, and a steady supply of easily huntable and crushable prey. This makes them poorly suited for icy (prey availability), wet (floating), warm (fur) and temperate environments (coloration).

Commercially - no one wants to ask the pet shop for a bearypus.