Prosanta Chakrabarty: Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish
Prosanta Chakrabarty: 没有眼睛的洞穴鱼告诉你史前的秘密
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,"
代表着"你的人生只有一次",
what I always dreamt of doing:
and discovering new species.
去发现新的物种。
on caves for finding new species.
洞穴鱼类新物种的发现上。
cavefish species out there.
a lot about biology and geology.
生物学和地理学的发现。
around them have changed and moved
却能够告诉我们世界的大格局,
the evolution of sight, by being blind.
眼睛的进化过程。
that are essentially the same as ours.
a fish species starts to adapt
但是当生存环境变了,
they lose their eyes and their eyesight
这些鱼的视力逐渐退化,
cavefish like this one here.
has evolved in a slightly different way,
and biological story to tell us,
when we find a new species.
激动不已的原因。
we described, from southern Indiana.
the Hoosier cavefish.
就是印第安纳洞穴鱼的意思。
are cavefishes in Kentucky,
when the Ohio River split them
these subtle differences
behind their blindness.
视力各自退化了.
that's super-critical for sight.
对视力的形成起到关键作用,
all function in that gene,
完全丢掉了这个基因,
natural experiment
behind our vision,
学习我们视觉的原理,
about deep geological time,
地理环境的变化,
than in this species here.
we described from Madagascar
发现的新物种
to collect this species.
我们吃了多少苦头.
full of dead things
be doing with your life,
做的最明智的选择,
that it tried to kill us,
我还是很爱它,
this species in Madagascar,
are 6,000 kilometers away,
freshwater cavefish
the DNA of these species
for more than 100 million years,
continents were last together.
didn't move at all.
these ancient geological events.
地理变化的具体时间.
to tell you its name yet,
it's a new species from Mexico,
the only known cave system it's from
它们生存的唯一的洞穴环境
this species' closest relative, yet.
anything else in Mexico,
something new about the geology
告诉我们加勒比海的变迁,
of how to better diagnose
生物学原理有进一步认识
before it goes extinct too.
trying to discover and save
去发现和保护
洞穴鱼类
about the geology of the planet
这个星球的地理变化
这五彩的世界.
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