Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish | Prosanta Chakrabarty

Prevodilac: Milenka Okuka Lektor: Mile Živković

Ichthyology,

Ihtiologija,

the study of fishes.

nauka o ribama.

It looks like a big, boring word,

To se čini kao velika, dosadna reč,

but it's actually quite exciting,

ali je zapravo prilično uzbudljiva

because ichthyology is the only "ology"

jer je ihtiologija jedina "ologija"

with "YOLO" in it.

koja sadrži "YOLO" u sebi.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Now, to the cool kids in the audience,

Sad, za kul decu u publici,

you already know, YOLO stands for "you only live once,"

već znate, YOLO stoji za "samo jednom se živi",

and because I only have one life,

i zato što imam samo jedan život,

I'm going to spend it doing what I always dreamt of doing:

provešću ga radeći što sam oduvek sanjao da radim:

seeing the hidden wonders of the world and discovering new species.

gledajući skrivena čuda sveta i otkrivajući nove vrste.

And that's what I get to do.

I to me je dopalo da radim.

Now, in recent years, I really focused on caves for finding new species.

Proteklih godina, zaista sam se fokusirao na pećine da bih otkrio nove vrste.

And it turns out, there's lots of new cavefish species out there.

I ispostavilo se da ima mnogo novih pećinskih riba u svetu.

You just have to know where to look,

Samo morate da znate kuda da tražite,

and to maybe be a little thin.

i možda da budete malčice mršavi.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Now, cavefishes can tell me a lot about biology and geology.

Sad, pećinske ribe mi mogu reći mnogo o biologiji i geologiji.

They can tell me how the landmasses around them have changed and moved

Mogu da mi kažu kako su se kopnene mase oko njih menjale i pomerale

by being stuck in these little holes,

tako što ostaju zaglavljene u ovim rupicama

and they can tell me about the evolution of sight, by being blind.

i mogu svojim slepilom da mi govore o evoluciji vida.

Now, fish have eyes that are essentially the same as ours.

Sad, ribe imaju oči koje su u suštini iste kao naše.

All vertebrates do, and each time a fish species starts to adapt

Kod svih kičmenjaka je tako, i uvek kad vrsta ribe počne da se adaptira

to this dark, cold, cave environment,

ovoj mračnoj, hladnoj, pećinskoj sredini,

over many, many generations, they lose their eyes and their eyesight

tokom mnogih, mnogih generacija, izgube svoje oči i svoj vid

until the end up like an eyeless cavefish like this one here.

dok završe poput bezoke pećinske ribe, poput ove ovde.

Now, each cavefish species has evolved in a slightly different way,

Sad, svaka vrsta pećinske ribe je evoluirala na nešto drugačiji način,

and each one has a unique geological and biological story to tell us,

i svaka ima jedinstvenu geološku i biološku priču da nam ispriča,

and that's why it's so exciting when we find a new species.

i zato je tako uzbudljivo kad otkrijemo novu vrstu.

So this is a new species we described, from southern Indiana.

Dakle, ovo je nova vrsta koju smo opisali, iz južne Indijane.

We named it Amblyopsis hoosieri, the Hoosier cavefish.

Nazvali smo je Amblyopsis hoosieri, hužer. (Hužer - stanovnik Indijane)

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Its closest relatives are cavefishes in Kentucky,

Njegovi najbliži rođaci su pećinske ribe iz Kentakija,

in the Mammoth Cave system.

iz sistema pećina Mamut.

And they start to diverge when the Ohio River split them

I počele su da se razilaze kad ih je reka Ohajo razdvojila

a few million years ago.

pre nekoliko miliona godina.

And in that time they developed these subtle differences

A tokom tog vremena razvile su ove prefinjene razlike

in the genetic architecture behind their blindness.

u genetskoj arhitekturi iza njihovog slepila.

There's this gene called rhodopsin that's super-critical for sight.

Postoji gen po imenu rodopsin koji je superključan za vid.

We have it, and these species have it too,

Mi ga imamo, i ove vrste ga imaju takođe,

except one species has lost all function in that gene,

samo što je jedna vrsta izgubila svu funkcionalnost tog gena,

and the other one maintains it.

a druge su je zadržale.

So this sets up this beautiful natural experiment

Te je ovo podesilo taj prelepi prirodni eksperiment

where we can look at the genes behind our vision,

gde možemo da posmatramo gene iza našeg vida

and at the very roots of how we can see.

i samu srž toga kako vidimo.

But the genes in these cavefishes

Ali geni u ovim pećinskim ribama

can also tell us about deep geological time,

nam takođe mogu reći o dubokom geološkom vremenu,

maybe no more so than in this species here.

možda ne dužem od ove vrste ovde.

This is a new species we described from Madagascar

Ovo je nova vrsta sa Madagaskara koju smo opisali

that we named Typhleotris mararybe.

i imenovali smo je Typhleotris mararybe.

That means "big sickness" in Malagasy,

To znači "velika mučnina" na malagasiju,

for how sick we got trying to collect this species.

po tome koliko nam se smučilo sakupljajući ovu vrstu.

Now, believe it or not,

Sad, verovali ili ne,

swimming around sinkholes full of dead things

plivanje oko ponora punih mrtvih stvari

and cave full of bat poop

i pećina punih šišmišove kake

isn't the smartest thing you could be doing with your life,

nije nešto najpametnije što možete da radite sa životom,

but YOLO.

ali YOLO.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Now, I love this species despite the fact that it tried to kill us,

Sad, volim ovu vrstu, uprkos činjenici da je pokušala da nas ubije,

and that's because this species in Madagascar,

a to je zato što su ove vrste s Madagaskara

its closest relatives are 6,000 kilometers away,

najbliži rođaci 6.000 kilometara udaljene

cavefishes in Australia.

pećinske ribe u Australiji.

Now, there's no way a three-inch-long freshwater cavefish

Nema šanse da je slatkovodna pećinska riba od osam centimetara

can swim across the Indian Ocean,

mogla da prepliva Indijski okean,

so what we found when we compared the DNA of these species

pa smo upoređivanjem DNK ovih vrsta otkrili

is that they've been separated for more than 100 million years,

da su razdvojene više od 100 miliona godina

or about the time that the southern continents were last together.

ili otprilike istovremeno kad su južni kontinenti poslednji put bili zajedno.

So in fact, these species didn't move at all.

Te se zapravo ove vrste uopšte nisu pomerile.

It's the continents that moved them.

Kontinenti su ih pomerili.

And so they give us, through their DNA,

Pa su nam dale, preko svog DNK,

this precise model and measure

ovaj precizan model i meru

of how to date and time these ancient geological events.

kako da datiramo i tempiramo ove drevne geološke događaje.

Now, this species here is so new

Sad, ova vrsta ovde je toliko nova

I'm not even allowed to tell you its name yet,

da mi i dalje nije dozvoljeno da vam kažem njeno ime,

but I can tell you it's a new species from Mexico,

ali mogu da vam kažem da je to nova vrsta iz Meksika,

and it's probably already extinct.

i verovatno je već istrebljena.

It's probably extinct because the only known cave system it's from

Verovatno je istrebljena jer je jedini poznati sistem pećina iz kog potiče

was destroyed when a dam was built nearby.

uništen kada je brana u blizini sagrađena.

Unfortunately for cavefishes,

Nažalost za pećinske ribe,

their groundwater habitat

njihovo stanište podzemnih voda

is also our main source of drinking water.

je takođe naš glavni izvor pijaće vode.

Now, we actually don't know this species' closest relative, yet.

Sad, zapravo još uvek ne znamo najbližeg rođaka ove vrste.

It doesn't appear to be anything else in Mexico,

Ne čini se da je bilo šta iz Meksika,

so maybe it's something in Cuba,

stoga može da bude nešto s Kube

or Florida, or India.

ili Floride ili Indije.

But whatever it is, it might tell us something new about the geology

Ali šta god da je, moglo bi da nam kaže nešto novo o geologiji Kariba

of the Caribbean, or the biology of how to better diagnose

ili biologiji boljeg dijagnostikovanja

certain types of blindness.

određenih tipova slepila.

But I hope we discover this species before it goes extinct too.

Ali se isto nadam da ćemo otkriti ovu vrstu pre nego što bude istrebljena.

And I'm going to spend my one life

I provešću svoj jedini život

as an ichthyologist trying to discover and save

kao ihtiolog, trudeći se da otkrijem i spasim

these humble little blind cavefishes

ove skromne slepe pećinske ribice

that can tell us so much about the geology of the planet

koje nam mogu reći toliko toga o geologiji planete

and the biology of how we see.

i biologiji našeg vida.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)