How Fish Evovled Electricity

[cockroach]

AUSTIN, Texas—Having a set of extra genes gave fish on separate continents the ability to evolve electric organs, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Harold Zakon and colleagues, in a paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that African and South American groups of fish independently evolved electric organs by modifying sodium channel proteins typically used in muscle contraction.
Mutations in sodium channel proteins can cause serious muscular disorders, epilepsy and heart problems in humans and other vertebrates.



http://www.utexas.edu/news/2006/03/02/neurobiology/

 

[spiff]

I have seen a sea bird related to the Albatross in Madagascar that developed the capability to create a sphynxter spark, there by lighting its own farts. This was actually a useful development to help as a boost to help gets its bulk off the ground when taking wing. Scientists speculate that it evolved from its ancestors behavior of running over the water with its webbed feet while trying to obtain lift, that this much strenuous activity probably made it work its gas out, so they are probably farting the whole time. Once in flight, they are mostly gliders.