Zebrafish Portraits
June 7, 2013
Although our last common ancestor lived approximately 450 million years ago the genetic profile of the zebrafish, or Danio rerio, is surprisingly similar to human beings. In addition they are easy to breed, have transparent embryo development and are very cost effective. These, and many other qualities, have made zebrafish into man’s most popular model organism. The Incredible Shrinking Man runs several small zebrafish labs that will hopefully help us understand how to become smaller, by studying the effects of various epigenetic influences on growth. Perhaps our future on Earth depends on these tiny fish. A fact illustrated by the great number of portraits that show scientists looking through an aquarium filled with our small genetic representatives.