Prosanta Chakrabarty: Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish
Prosanta Chakrabarty: Pesci di grotta ciechi rivelano indizi sulla preistoria
Prosanta Chakrabarty studies fish to help explain the evolution of human beings and our planet. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
"you only live once,"
"si vive una volta sola".
what I always dreamt of doing:
quello che ho sempre sognato:
and discovering new species.
del pianeta e scoprire nuove specie.
on caves for finding new species.
sulle grotte per trovare nuove specie.
cavefish species out there.
molte nuove specie di pesci di grotta.
a lot about biology and geology.
sulla biologia e sulla geologia,
around them have changed and moved
delle terre attorno a loro
the evolution of sight, by being blind.
si è evoluta la vista, essendo ciechi.
that are essentially the same as ours.
essenzialmente uguali ai nostri.
a fish species starts to adapt
che una specie inizia ad adattarsi
e freddo di queste grotte,
they lose their eyes and their eyesight
questi pesci perdono gli occhi e la vista
cavefish like this one here.
privi di occhi, come questo.
has evolved in a slightly different way,
si è sviluppata in modi diversi,
and biological story to tell us,
e biologica unica da raccontarci.
when we find a new species.
scoprire nuove specie.
we described, from southern Indiana.
del sud dell'Indiana
che abbiamo descritto.
the Hoosier cavefish.
Hoosieri, il pesce di grotta "Hoosier".
are cavefishes in Kentucky,
sono i pesci di grotta del Kentucky,
when the Ohio River split them
quando il fiume Ohio li ha separati
these subtle differences
queste leggere differenze
behind their blindness.
che sta alla base dellla loro cecità.
that's super-critical for sight.
che è cruciale per la vista.
all function in that gene,
la funzionalità di quel gene,
natural experiment
esperimento della natura,
behind our vision,
i geni alla base della vista
about deep geological time,
riguardanti ere geologiche remote.
than in this species here.
we described from Madagascar
che abbiamo descritto.
"Typhleotris Mararybe".
to collect this species.
di raccogliere questa specie.
full of dead things
piene di cose morte
be doing with your life,
di passare la propria vita,
that it tried to kill us,
anche se ha provato a ucciderci.
this species in Madagascar,
di questa specie del Madagascar
are 6,000 kilometers away,
freshwater cavefish
d'acqua dolce lungo 7 cm
the DNA of these species
il DNA di queste specie,
for more than 100 million years,
più di 100 milioni di anni fa,
continents were last together.
i continenti australi erano ancora uniti.
didn't move at all.
non si sono mosse affatto.
e la misura precisi
these ancient geological events.
questi antichi eventi geologici.
è talmente recente,
to tell you its name yet,
dirvi il suo nome,
it's a new species from Mexico,
da cui proviene
the only known cave system it's from
con la costruzione di una diga.
d'acqua potabile.
this species' closest relative, yet.
più prossimi di questa specie.
anything else in Mexico,
something new about the geology
nuove cose sulla geologia dei Caraibi,
of how to better diagnose
su come diagnosticare meglio
before it goes extinct too.
venga scoperta prima di estinguersi.
trying to discover and save
about the geology of the planet
della geologia del nostro pianeta
della nostra vista.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Prosanta Chakrabarty - IchthyologistProsanta Chakrabarty studies fish to help explain the evolution of human beings and our planet.
Why you should listen
Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty is an Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Science at Louisiana State University.
Chakrabarty is a systematist and an ichthyologist studying the evolution and biogeography of both freshwater and marine fishes. His work includes studies of Neotropical (Central and South America, Caribbean) and Indo-West Pacific (Indian and Western Pacific Ocean) fishes. His natural history collecting efforts include trips to Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Madagascar, Panama, Kuwait and many other countries. He has discovered over a dozen new species including new anglerfishes and cavefishes.
The LSU Museum of Natural Science fish collection that Chakrabarty oversees includes nearly half a million fish specimens and nearly 10,000 DNA samples covering most major groups of fishes. He earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and his undergraduate degree is from McGill University in Montreal. He has written two books including A Guide to Academia: Getting into and Surviving Grad School, Postdocs and a Research Job. He is also a former Program Director at the National Science Foundation. He was named a TED Fellow in 2016 and a TED Senior Fellow in 2018.
Prosanta Chakrabarty | Speaker | TED.com