researchers from new
1 institute of technology (njit) have identified unique anatomical features in a species of blind, walking cavefish in thailand that enable the fish to walk and climb waterfalls in a manner comparable to tetrapods, or four-footed mammals and
2. the discovery of this
3, not seen in any other living fishes, also has implications for understanding how the
4 that all species need to walk on land evolved after the transition from
5 to limbed
6 in the devonian period, which began some 420 million years ago. this research is reported in a march 24 nature scientific reports article, "tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish," by brooke e. flammang, daphne soares, julie markiewicz and apinun suvarnaraksha. flammang and soares, assistant professors in the njit department of biological sciences, were assisted with the research by markiewicz, an njit post-baccalaureate research volunteer in the flammang lab at the university.
7 suvarnaraksha is a member of the
8 of fisheries technology and
9 resources of maejo university in thailand. the full text of their article is available at http://www.nature.com/articles/srep23711.
speaking of the unique anatomical structures seen in the cavefish, cryptotora thamicola, flammang says, "it possesses morphological features that have
10 only been attributed to tetrapods. the pelvis and vertebral column of this fish allow it to support its body weight against gravity and provide large sites for muscle
11 for walking." with respect to
12 significance, she adds, "this research gives us insight into the plasticity of the fish body plan and the
13 morphological features that were seen in the evolution of tetrapods."
收听单词发音 
