I can’t think of anything to say that isn’t me crying over my essays and assignment workload, so instead I will share something I learnt fairly recently.
Did you know flatfish are born with eyes on each side of their face, but as they grow one eye moves to the other side of the face?
The eye just… migrates. Across the forehead and everything.
I was honestly quite surprised when I first learnt this, but I had forgotten about it for a while.
Just recently I went to Ripley’s Aquarium in downtown Toronto and saw a flatfish, so it reminded me of this fact.
It’s such an interesting way to grow, you know. Like what for? Why aren’t they just born with eyes on one side?
First of all, why do they have eyes on one side of the face?
Apparently it’s because baby flatfish swim like any other fish, upright, and it benefits the fish to be able to see both sides of the face.
But as they grow older they fall sideways and become the “flat” flatfish as we know it, and they no longer need to be seeing one side of the face. I mean even if they did see it, all they can see would be sand on the bottom of the ocean floor.
The genes that determine where the fish’s eye is placed only get activated after the fish starts lying sideways!
Don’t you think that’s cool?
I’ve learnt a lot about genes and I understand how logically that makes sense, but if I first saw the growth of a flatfish without prior knowledge I would think I was going insane.
Life is so weird. It comes up with ways to be “efficient” in the weirdest ways.
