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IMAGE: Rice University bioscientist Kory Evans with a 3D printed skull of a jack, a close symmetrical relative of flatfish. Evans and colleagues found flatfish rapidly evolved their asymmetric shape thanks...
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Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
HOUSTON - (May 3, 2021) - Ever look at a flatfish like a flounder or sole, with two eyes on one side of its head, and think, "How did that happen?"
You're in luck. Rice University biologist Kory Evans has the answer.
"Flatfishes are some of the weirdest vertebrates on the planet, and they got weird very, very fast by changing multiple traits at once over a short period of time," said Evans, an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice who specializes in studying the evolution of fish over long time scales.