For the first time, scientists have unlocked the secrets to one of the world's most recognizable and unique, but least understood fish – the seahorse. Researchers have worked out the genetic code of the Southeast Asian tiger tail seahorse. They now have the genetic map of all of its DNA. This means scientists can find out a lot more about this sea creature than before. They can now start to figure out why seahorses are so different to other fish. Unlike other fish, seahorses have no teeth. Another difference is the male brooding of their young - male seahorses carry babies and give birth to them instead of females. In addition, seahorses do not swim horizontally like other fish; they swim vertically (up and down).
科學家首次破解了世界上最容易辨別,最獨特,但是人們了解最少的魚類——海馬的秘密。研究人員描繪出了東南亞虎尾海馬的基因序列。他們現(xiàn)在已經掌握了海馬所有的DNA圖譜。這意味著科學家可以比以前更好地了解這種海洋生物。他們現(xiàn)在可以開始調查為何海馬與其他魚類差別如此之大。與其他魚類不同,海馬沒有牙齒。另外一個區(qū)別是,海馬由雄性來哺育后代——雄性懷孕,然后生育幼崽。此外,海馬不像其他魚類一樣水平游動,而是垂直上下游動。
Scientists from Germany’s University of Konstanz and others from China and Singapore helped to sequence the genome of the tiger tail seahorse. A genome is a map of all the genes and genetic information in a cell or organism. Seahorses started to change from other fish about 100 million years ago. They began to take on their unusual shape, which resembles a horse. There is a total of 54 species of seahorse. Its scientific name is Hippocampus. The word 'Hippocampus' comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos meaning 'horse' and kampos meaning 'sea monster'. The word 'seahorse' can also be written as two separate words (sea horse), or hyphenated with a dash between the two words (sea-horse).
來自康斯坦茨大學的科學家和來自中國,新加坡的研究人員幫助確定了虎尾海馬的基因序列?;蚪M是所有基因的圖譜,包含一個細胞或有機體所有的基因信息。大約1億年前,海馬開始從其他魚類轉變。它們開始呈現(xiàn)出不同的形狀,就像馬一樣。海馬共有54個品種。它的學名叫做Hippocampus(馬頭魚尾獸)。"Hippocampus"一詞來自古希臘詞語,hippos的意思是馬,kampos的意思是海怪。seahorse這個單詞也可以分開寫作sea horse,或者中間加上連字符,寫作sea-horse。