Daphnia Regeneration

[Sonny Disposition]

Ran across this really neat article on daphnia and other tiny crustaceans from The Scientist. Basically, it says that daphnia eggs appear to be inactive, showing no signs of metabolic activity. Their eggs--and those of other miniscule crustacean--can lie dormant for years and maybe even centuries before hatching!

Researchers are taking advantage of this trait to study how the organisms change in response to changes in their environment. They drill down into lake and pond sediments and recover eggs from past years (some as old as 75 years), hatch them, and then compare the old daphnia to contemporary daphnia.

Pretty neat!

http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/2/1/19/2/

 

[marge618]

Ran across this really neat article on daphnia and other tiny crustaceans from The Scientist. Basically, it says that daphnia eggs appear to be inactive, showing no signs of metabolic activity. Their eggs--and those of other miniscule crustacean--can lie dormant for years and maybe even centuries before hatching!

Researchers are taking advantage of this trait to study how the organisms change in response to changes in their environment. They drill down into lake and pond sediments and recover eggs from past years (some as old as 75 years), hatch them, and then compare the old daphnia to contemporary daphnia.

Pretty neat!

http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/2/1/19/2/[/b]

Bob: This is really 'neat'. Will have to follow up on this one. Who would of thought of such a thing in the first place?

OH OH I can just see the wheels turning at Francine's now. (How much do you pay for ancient daphne? Somebody's going to get rich. AND are there lost hibernating daphne eggs in all of those tanks in the fishroom? How about the dried out rocks you pulled out of those tanks when you reorganized?)
Later,
Marge

 

[maddog10]

I was thinking along those same lines Marge!

Frank is going to be selling "classic daphnia" at the next meeting!

 

[longstocking]

:lol: classic :lol: