Killifish Content

Maternal Exposure to Crude Oil, Flame Retardants Can Affect Later Generations

Katherine E Kerlin — August 27, 2025 - 11:53am

A tiny fish with transparent embryos is helping University of California, Davis, researchers shed light on how exposure to crude oil and flame retardants can affect behavior, skeletal growth, cardiac health and other internal functions in offspring and subsequent generations.

The research on multiple generations of Atlantic killifish (mummichogs) was published across three papers in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

An Evolutionary Rescue in Polluted Waters

Katherine E Kerlin — May 02, 2019 - 2:16pm

The combination of a big population, good genes and luck helps explain how a species of fish in Texas’ Houston Ship Channel was able to adapt to what normally would be lethal levels of toxins for most other species, according to a study to be published May 3 in the journal Science.

Against the Tide: A Fish Adapts Quickly to Lethal Levels of Pollution

Katherine E Kerlin — December 08, 2016 - 9:46am

Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science. Atlantic killifish living in four polluted East Coast estuaries have adapted to levels of highly toxic industrial pollutants that would normally kill them.