White-Blooded Fish Analysis

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In the article "White-Blooded" Icefish, 1927, Ditlef Rustad discovered a bizarre-looking fish on Bouvet Island while part of a Norwegian expedition. In 1954, biochemist Johan Ruud verified that this was due to the deficiency in red blood cells and hemoglobin. In 2006, William Detrich of Northeastern University compared the DNA of a blackfin icefish to a red-blooded fish and found remnants of the globin gene that required the creation of hemoglobin. Overtime, the icefish adapted to the arctic environment by developing larger hearts and blood vessels, and denser capillary beds. This made it easier for the high volumed blood to flow through the fish. Because of the extremely high level of oxygen, the loss of hemoglobin did not impact the fish