Curiosity and serendipity helped two teams of scientists learn that one species of sea robin employs legs that have both the sense of touch and taste.
Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsAfter delivering a guest lecture on sticklebacks, an unfamiliar fish caught Stanford University researcher David Kingsley’s eye. When he walked past an aquarium at the“I did this huge double take because I looked in this one tank, and there was one of the weirdest fish I've ever seen,” says Kingsley. “It had the body of a fish, the wings of a bird, and it was walking along the bottom of the tank on six legs.
The Harvard researchers then began asking themselves about the molecular biology behind this ability. Unfortunately, the scientists weren’t as adept at identifying key molecules as the sea robin was at locating food. “We were just totally failing,” says Bellono. “We could not find anything because we really didn't know where to look.”Then serendipity struck again. The group ran out of fish, so they sought another batch from Woods Hole.
Then, serendipitous moment Number Three struck. The Harvard group got word that a postdoc from the Stanford lab had been visiting the MBL every summer to work with sea robins. “We thought ‘well, if someone else in the world cares about these weird fish, we should probably work with them,” Bellono. The two teams complemented each other because the Stanford group had expertise in genetics and genomics, while the Harvard team excelled at sensory functions, behavior, and molecular biology.
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