News and Events

Seminar

The teleosts, a mesozoic success story

David Randall, Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong

Where: Townsville: Sir George Fisher Research Building Conference Room 114 (B32 upstairs)

When: 12.00pm, Wednesday 25 January 2012

David Randall, an environmental physiologist, joined UBC, Canada, in 1963 and was appointed Professor in 1973. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1981) and was a Guggenheim (1968) and a Killam (1981) fellow. He received the Fry Medal (1993), the AFS Award of Excellence (1994), the Murray Newman prize (2008). He was President of the CSZ (1985) and the Western Canadian Universities Marine Biological Society (1998-2000) and a trustee of the World Wide Fund for Nature (HK) (2002-2006). He has authored over three hundred original papers and has edited and contributed to many books, including Fish Physiology (26+ volumes), a book on Air-breathing fish and a textbook on Animal Physiology used worldwide and translated into German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and Portuguese. Former Head of Biology and Chemistry (2000-2006) and member of Council, he is now Chair Professor of Biology in City University of Hong Kong.

Abstract:

The Teleost appeared and radiated in the hypoxic conditions of the Triassic and Jurassic. There are 26,000 named species constituting 95% of all extant fish species. The explanations of their success concern modifications in feeding and locomotion, with gene duplication enhancing these processes. I propose that hypoxia tolerance also contributed to their success. Incidence of aquatic hypoxia in time and space along with the characteristics of teleosts that make them hypoxia tolerant will be reviewed. A possible role of the Root shift in tissue oxygen transfer will be discussed.