Dr. Ryder Frozen Zoo

Dr. Ryder, a professor of molecular biology at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation, is a unique individual.  I was quite impressed with his background and education.  When he started school Watson and Crick were talking about something about DNA, whatever that was.  Then Watson and Crick determined DNA was a double helix.  In Dr. Ryder’s lifetime, our “molecules of life” was determined to be DNA arranged in a double helix, the concept of genes was developed and cell biology went from its infancy to the complex systems we know today.

Currently Dr. Ryder works at the “Frozen Zoo,” part of the San Diego zoo, sequencing animal genomes.  He stated, “The power of the genome was to be able to determine the genomic differences in populations.”  However, to know what is different, a baseline of “normal” has to be established. 

His work has been integrated with the California Condor Project.  At one time the population was down to 21 animals.  Some of the chicks were being born with lethal dwarfism.  It is a recessive gene and the Zoo did not want to pass on the recessive gene.  Dr. Ryder and his group have sequenced the genomes of the Zoo’s condor population in hopes to determine which animals carry the recessive gene.

Dr. Ryder’s work on the California Condor Project (and others) was an elegant example of how scientists working in the lab can have a direct impact on ecology and conservation.

It's A Long Way From Amphioxus IALWTA

Click here to listen

Oh, a fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day,
It hadn't any parapods or setae to display.
It hadn't any eyes or jaws or ventral nervous chord.
But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.

Chorus:
It's a long way from amphioxus, it's a long way to us.
It's a long way from amphioxus to the meanest human cuss.
It's good-bye to fins and gill slits, and welcome lungs and hair.
It's a long, long way from amphioxus, but we all came from there.

It wan't much to look at and it scarce knew how to swim.
And Nories was very sure it hadn't come from him.
The Molluscs wouldn't own it and the Arthropods got sore.
So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore.

 Chorus

 He burrowed in the sand before a crab could nip his tail.
And he said, "Gill slits and myotomes are all to no avail."
"I've grown some metapleural folds and sport an oral hood.
But all these fine new characters don't do me any good."

 Chorus

He sulked awhile down in the sand, without a bit of pep;
Then he stiffened up his notochord and said, "I'll beat 'em yet!"
"Let them laugh and show their ignorance, I don't mind their jeers."
"Just wait until they see me in a hundred million years."

 Chorus

"My notochord shall change into a chain of vertebra,
And, as fins, my metapleural folds will agitate the sea."
"My tiny dorsal nervous chord shall be a mighty brain.
And the vertebrates shall dominate the animal domain."