Otago Harbour, New Zealand, 2023

Fishing for Paranotothenia angustata, a secondarily temperate notothenioid fish. This species has evolved from the constantly cold waters of the Southern Ocean to be able to survive the warmer waters around New Zealand.

As embryonic development is a bottleneck in thermal adaptation, with Antarctic fish embryos surviving a very narrow temperature range, we are interested in how these fishes have adapted their embryos to survive warmer waters.

We are also interested in exploring the state of the kidneys in P. angustata, as these fish no longer produce antifreeze proteins and have re-evolved a non-functioning glomerulus in their kidney despite this structure thought to have been lost lost for millions of years of notothenioid evolution.

Collaboration with Bridie Allan and Miles Lamare at the University of Otago Portobello Marine Laboratory.