7 ms·

This is no world for an axolotl

174 points by geox 2y ago

mitchbob 2y ago
https://archive.ph/FXjo6 https://archive.ph/FXjo6
i_love_retros 2y ago
We're turning this planet into an absolute shithole!
- goatlover 2y ago
  Drill, baby, drill!
- vixen99 2y ago
  Who can argue with that? Surely attempts are being made to find other freshwater locations where they can prosper?
  - JonChesterfield 2y ago
    Ones that aren't heavily polluted?
- mc32 2y ago
  Most advanced econs are not growing their native populations. It’s other growing economies that are padding human pop numbers. China is about to start going backwards )pop decrease) like Japan and Italy. Advanced econs are doing their jobs stabilizing pops; others are contributing to growth.
  - zdragnar 2y ago
    What's happening in China is slightly different. For the non-excluded population, there's generations now who do not have brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles. Add on top of that selective abortion for the male preference, and no social safety net, and you've got the most interesting sociology experiment in history. Japan, Russia and Italy aren't being forced through it by an authoritarian government, but are rather experiencing ennui at a social level. America is the same, though immigration helps hide the problem. I have one sibling. My parents had six each. Their parents had between 6 and 12. The rapid expansion of the last two-four hundred years is definitely slowing down throughout most of the world.
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    "Advanced" economies might have declining population but they show no sign of declining in terms of their net resource usages and CO2 emissions.
    - mc32 2y ago
      They actually have shown improvement despite the added load by newcomers who now consume in similar quantities to natives.
  - JosephK 2y ago
    It's less about population size, and more about ecological footprint of the population. Per capita, rich nations and rich populations within developing nations are the ones having the biggest ecological impact: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/ https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-over....
- dmonitor 2y ago
  At least Axolotls are practically guaranteed to survive in captivity as long as humans are prolific, thanks to their popularity as pets.
  - Suppafly 2y ago
    >At least Axolotls are practically guaranteed to survive in captivity as long as humans are prolific, thanks to their popularity as pets. Not to mention in scientific labs.
krunck 2y ago
We can't keep making more people and expect the world to not change.
- tdb7893 2y ago
  Humans will inevitably change the world but there's also lots of things that humans do that really increase their impact (global warming, farming that emphasizes really high land use foods, industrial pollutants, poor stewardship of land in general). I think just emphasizing population growth is ignoring tons and tons of decisions that we make
  - generativenoise 2y ago
    Since the popular narrative completely ignores population for the most part in the: impact = population * pollution/intensity rate per person relationship. Since no one want to discuss active limits and we would rather have limits as second order effects of other policies. Calling out a comment for just mentioning growing population is a bit weird. Since world fertility seems to be dropping, it is unlikely to dominate in the future. Therefore, your summation of what we should be focusing on would be more correct. This hasn't always been true and it is still and important factor to keep in mind.
    - ForTheKidz 2y ago
      > Since no one want to discuss active limits We're nowhere near active limits. Of course the limits will shrink with mismanagement, but we could feed a good deal more people with the amount of food we produce today. Axolotls were doomed by other sins of humanity.
      - melagonster 2y ago
        We will reach there soon. A tendency is that people don't want more than two kids after they are rich enough. So we just need to wait for everyone rich enough.
bbor 2y ago
Thanks for posting, I'm so excited to finally have a good summary! El Pais killing it, as usual. A comment and a challenging question: 1. We all pronounce it wrong apparently, even the Mexicans who just substitute "ach" for "ecs" -- it's actually "sh", and the l is basically silent. An interesting example of cultural heritage where I, a quite progressive person trying my best to be accommodating to all cultures, just flat out refuse to change! It's just one of the best words out there, and I will not give it up for anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79EBJYJbuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79EBJYJbuA 2. Why don't we set up sanctuaries?! I read the entire article, but if there was a reason that the Axolotl could only survive in this one super specific, uber-populated place, I missed it. Appearently it can't get cold, ok fine -- but Mexico is huge, not to mention the rest of the world! Are we so dedicated to Leave No Trace that we'll let this incredible, unique, inspiring species die out in the wild rather than cull some lake of predatory fish? IMHO we need to be bolder about environmental design, because the changes are coming regardless; pretending like we can save everything is just lying to ourselves, especially as the global climate itself changes. Just recently, the US Feds moved forward on a plan to institute owl hunting permits just to protect the range of a particular owl from being encroached on, which... I mean, how can you shoot an owl and think of yourself as the good guy?
- dhosek 2y ago
  The range used to be somewhat larger, but the environment has been reduced (most of what’s now Mexico city used to be a lake). It needs the right combination of climate and environment which doesn’t really exist outside of Mexico City (and that environment is constantly being encroached upon and degraded, although it is relatively protected at least). It seems that many people know about the axolotl courtesy of Minecraft which on the one hand is cool because hey, now they know about this endangered species but on the other hand is not cool because a not insignificant number of them think, hey I want one as a pet which leads to poaching and death because neither poachers nor video gamers are adept at caring for fragile amphibians.
  - fc417fc802 2y ago
    > which leads to poaching They are trivial to breed in captivity. No one sane is poaching them. Related, many (though probably not all) species deemed to be threatened by us would be better off if it were legal to keep them as pets.
nurettin 2y ago
Unlocks full regeneration capabilities and still going extinct while your average lizard can only do it for half a tail and still thrives.
- dhosek 2y ago
  Amphibians are sadly, more susceptible to environmental toxins than reptiles are. I think it’s because their skin is more absorbent than reptile skin, but my biological knowledge is fairly limited.
  - robocat 2y ago
    Not just toxins. Amphibian chytrid fungus is a major threat to frogs worldwide.
  - Suppafly 2y ago
    I sometimes hang out with people that are super into retiles and amphibians and even somewhat know a guy that raises axolotls for a university, they are very careful about they put on their hands when going out looking for them in the wild or even when handling them as pets and such. No recent use of lotions or hand sanitizer and such. It sucks having to be careful with things like bug spray when you are going to be in prime mosquito territory.
light_triad 2y ago
Reminds me of the delightfully strange short story by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar: ‘Axolotl’ is narrated by a lonely man who regularly visits the local zoo, where he becomes fascinated by the axolotls in the aquarium. In time, he states that he, too, is an axolotl, and feels he has become one of them. https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/AxolotlByJulioCortazar.html https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/Axol...
- rumori 2y ago
  +1 really enjoyed the whole collection of short stories from Cortazar when I read it at uni. https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Selected-Stories-Julio-Cort%C3%A1zar/dp/1784875856 https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Selected-Stories-Julio-Cort%...
- gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
  Curiosity about the works of man >> curiosity about the "works" of "God"/"Nature"??? Ironic that this masterpiece is about an extreme form of the latter XD
- patrickscoleman 2y ago
  love the story! i took a stab at translating it: https://pscoleman.me/blog/axolotl https://pscoleman.me/blog/axolotl
zh3 2y ago
Thanks to Minecraft and pester-power, we bought our son an axolotl some years ago on the condition he would look after it (figuring we'd end up looking after it anyway). And since they live a long time it's given us an out every time he asks for a new pet ;)
- xvedejas 2y ago
  Interesting, I had thought they were generally illegal to keep as pets, but I see now that that's only in some locations.
  - hereonout2 2y ago
    They are relatively popular legal pets in Europe - though not sold in many mainstream pet shops. 100% of those kept as pets here are bred in captivity. Having kept them before, they are genuinely about as hard to care for as goldfish but need bigger tanks and a little bit more cleaning. Also super easy to breed, we let the spawn hatch once and ended up with about 70 larvae, they cannibalize quickly but 6 grew to full size and we sold them on very easily.
    - atomicnumber3 2y ago
      They do need refrigerated water. Also note most goldfish are abused, they need huge tanks 40G+ if I remember right, and not the 8-16 fl oz bowls they're stereotypically kept in. And they need filtration and would do better with a water heater. So idk if pointing to goldfish is the best indicator, even if imo you're technically correct - the refrigerating system isn't really a lot to maintain and that's the main difference.
      - zh3 2y ago
        To add to this, ideal temperature is 16C to 18C (we use a Pi to keep a running graph of the temperature). Lower is generally ok, apparently if it gets into the mid-20's they get so stress they try and escape the tank. We have a chiller, though we have also used the fairly common trick of putting ice bottles in the tank as needed (milk containers filled with water and left in the freeze for 24 hours work well).
efremjw 2y ago
https://nextgenbiologics.com/index.html https://nextgenbiologics.com/index.html
araes 2y ago
From the crowd source folks, here's the iNaturalist map on Axolotl (Ambystoma Mexicanum) [1][2] [1] Species, Map, Observation Count: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/26777-Ambystoma-mexicanum https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/26777-Ambystoma-mexicanum [2] Actual Observations with Pictures: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=26777 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&tax... Only six whole observations in the last decade. Most near Mexico City. Unfortunately, one of them's in the process of being eaten by a Clark's Grebe.
croes 2y ago
> No, the usual trio of culprits are to blame: Or just one: humans
giantfrog 2y ago
We’re really messing this place up huh
lukan 2y ago
"if one of its legs is cut off, a new limb will grow in a few hours, identical and pristine. The same process occurs with any other part of its awe-inspiring form" I doubt this works with the head?
- unfixed 2y ago
  I wouldn't consider the head a limb to be honest.
  - lukan 2y ago
    But as "any other part of its awe-inspiring form"?
    - zshrdlu 2y ago
      Yeah casual extraordinary claim, I'm equally stumped.
  - werdnapk 2y ago
    If there's a major organ in the part you cut off... good luck.
- mrweasel 2y ago
  It apparently does work for their brain though, you probably can't remove the whole thing, but they can grow back large chunks of their brain: https://www.livescience.com/axolotls-can-regenerate-their-brains https://www.livescience.com/axolotls-can-regenerate-their-br...
amy_petrik 2y ago
The other interesting things about axolots is they have what is called "neoteny" basically meaning the organism COULD proceed to adult form but never does - the natural axolotl is sort of a half-metamorphized creature for life, similar to a frog halfway through the tadpole->frog changes. You can induce the transformation with thyroid-type hormone stimulation (thyroid / TSH), which results in a salamander - essentially resurrecting this ancient morphology not seen in this world for a long time. Then the regenerative capabilities (seen in other amphibians as well) you can think of that as, "child humans heal better, what if the human is a child for life" in simplistic terms. There are also tradeoffs the organism makes i.e. ability to reproduce at a younger age (reproduction evolutionary win), and notably, the histology and cellular structures are simplified and less complex than say mammals, thusly making body parts easier to regenerate. It's also notable that amphibians have massive genomes, the axolotl being 10x the size of humans! - but with about the same number of genes, why? Well if mutations occur at random positions and you have ~10x more non-coding junk DNA, you've just lowered the frequency of mutations hitting coding genes, they are more likely to hit "safe" non-coding parts. All of this is important because if a mutation slips into the regenerated limb -> cancer, so we're de-risking mutations by having a massive genome https://www.mdpi.com/2221-3759/9/1/2 https://www.mdpi.com/2221-3759/9/1/2
- aydyn 2y ago
  I dont believe that last point is true. The processes that cause mutation (polymerase error, replication) are per base, not per genome.
  - fc417fc802 2y ago
    Indeed it makes little sense that the error rate would be independent of genome length. Even in the case of radiation it's going to depend on the cross section at minimum, which is related to volume, which is related to genome length.
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    But could there be more error correction since the total storage area is larger?
thedailymail 2y ago
"It has an impressive resume, being the most studied animal in the world, subject of more investigations than even the Drosophila melanogaster or common fruit fly that resides in thousands of laboratories around the world." It would be great to have a source for this claim! Recent studies have estimated that between 10 million and 110 million (it's controversial!) lab mice are used per year in the US, representing 93–97% of all experimental animals. https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-rats-are-used-us-labs-controversial-study-says-more-100-million https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-ra...
- fc417fc802 2y ago
  It also just doesn't make any sense given how much cheaper and faster drosophila and c elegans both are. > representing 93–97% of all experimental animals. Experimental mammals maybe. Not animals in general.
- aa-jv 2y ago
  The mice aren't being studied for their mice-ness, they've been industrialised for their ease-of-production and easy-to-slaughter mammalian analog attributes. Wheras Axoloti and co., are still being studied for their unique characteristics.
turtleyacht 2y ago
Two years ago, Mexican ecologists start campaign to save axolotl - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38437747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38437747 (2023) (35 points, 9 comments). Here is a link with a range of adoption plans: https://www.ib.unam.mx/ib/unidades-investigacion/departamento-de-zoologia/restauracion-ecologica/index.php https://www.ib.unam.mx/ib/unidades-investigacion/departament...
mhb 2y ago
"Many ask me, 'How do I say your name?'". https://www.instagram.com/p/BgSGVvZlOz-/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BgSGVvZlOz-/
- tanseydavid 2y ago
  Well played. Thank you for that.
nofunsir 2y ago
I already have a scroll bar. Enough with this js "ux" bs

174 points by geox 2y ago

mitchbob 2y ago

https://archive.ph/FXjo6 https://archive.ph/FXjo6

i_love_retros 2y ago

We're turning this planet into an absolute shithole!

goatlover 2y ago
Drill, baby, drill!
vixen99 2y ago
Who can argue with that? Surely attempts are being made to find other freshwater locations where they can prosper?
- JonChesterfield 2y ago
  Ones that aren't heavily polluted?
mc32 2y ago
Most advanced econs are not growing their native populations. It’s other growing economies that are padding human pop numbers. China is about to start going backwards )pop decrease) like Japan and Italy. Advanced econs are doing their jobs stabilizing pops; others are contributing to growth.
- zdragnar 2y ago
  What's happening in China is slightly different. For the non-excluded population, there's generations now who do not have brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles. Add on top of that selective abortion for the male preference, and no social safety net, and you've got the most interesting sociology experiment in history. Japan, Russia and Italy aren't being forced through it by an authoritarian government, but are rather experiencing ennui at a social level. America is the same, though immigration helps hide the problem. I have one sibling. My parents had six each. Their parents had between 6 and 12. The rapid expansion of the last two-four hundred years is definitely slowing down throughout most of the world.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  "Advanced" economies might have declining population but they show no sign of declining in terms of their net resource usages and CO2 emissions.
  - mc32 2y ago
    They actually have shown improvement despite the added load by newcomers who now consume in similar quantities to natives.
- JosephK 2y ago
  It's less about population size, and more about ecological footprint of the population. Per capita, rich nations and rich populations within developing nations are the ones having the biggest ecological impact: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/ https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-over....
dmonitor 2y ago
At least Axolotls are practically guaranteed to survive in captivity as long as humans are prolific, thanks to their popularity as pets.
- Suppafly 2y ago
  >At least Axolotls are practically guaranteed to survive in captivity as long as humans are prolific, thanks to their popularity as pets. Not to mention in scientific labs.

krunck 2y ago

We can't keep making more people and expect the world to not change.

tdb7893 2y ago
Humans will inevitably change the world but there's also lots of things that humans do that really increase their impact (global warming, farming that emphasizes really high land use foods, industrial pollutants, poor stewardship of land in general). I think just emphasizing population growth is ignoring tons and tons of decisions that we make
- generativenoise 2y ago
  Since the popular narrative completely ignores population for the most part in the: impact = population * pollution/intensity rate per person relationship. Since no one want to discuss active limits and we would rather have limits as second order effects of other policies. Calling out a comment for just mentioning growing population is a bit weird. Since world fertility seems to be dropping, it is unlikely to dominate in the future. Therefore, your summation of what we should be focusing on would be more correct. This hasn't always been true and it is still and important factor to keep in mind.
  - ForTheKidz 2y ago
    > Since no one want to discuss active limits We're nowhere near active limits. Of course the limits will shrink with mismanagement, but we could feed a good deal more people with the amount of food we produce today. Axolotls were doomed by other sins of humanity.
    - melagonster 2y ago
      We will reach there soon. A tendency is that people don't want more than two kids after they are rich enough. So we just need to wait for everyone rich enough.

bbor 2y ago

Thanks for posting, I'm so excited to finally have a good summary! El Pais killing it, as usual. A comment and a challenging question: 1. We all pronounce it wrong apparently, even the Mexicans who just substitute "ach" for "ecs" -- it's actually "sh", and the l is basically silent. An interesting example of cultural heritage where I, a quite progressive person trying my best to be accommodating to all cultures, just flat out refuse to change! It's just one of the best words out there, and I will not give it up for anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79EBJYJbuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79EBJYJbuA 2. Why don't we set up sanctuaries?! I read the entire article, but if there was a reason that the Axolotl could only survive in this one super specific, uber-populated place, I missed it. Appearently it can't get cold, ok fine -- but Mexico is huge, not to mention the rest of the world! Are we so dedicated to Leave No Trace that we'll let this incredible, unique, inspiring species die out in the wild rather than cull some lake of predatory fish? IMHO we need to be bolder about environmental design, because the changes are coming regardless; pretending like we can save everything is just lying to ourselves, especially as the global climate itself changes. Just recently, the US Feds moved forward on a plan to institute owl hunting permits just to protect the range of a particular owl from being encroached on, which... I mean, how can you shoot an owl and think of yourself as the good guy?

dhosek 2y ago
The range used to be somewhat larger, but the environment has been reduced (most of what’s now Mexico city used to be a lake). It needs the right combination of climate and environment which doesn’t really exist outside of Mexico City (and that environment is constantly being encroached upon and degraded, although it is relatively protected at least). It seems that many people know about the axolotl courtesy of Minecraft which on the one hand is cool because hey, now they know about this endangered species but on the other hand is not cool because a not insignificant number of them think, hey I want one as a pet which leads to poaching and death because neither poachers nor video gamers are adept at caring for fragile amphibians.
- fc417fc802 2y ago
  > which leads to poaching They are trivial to breed in captivity. No one sane is poaching them. Related, many (though probably not all) species deemed to be threatened by us would be better off if it were legal to keep them as pets.

nurettin 2y ago

Unlocks full regeneration capabilities and still going extinct while your average lizard can only do it for half a tail and still thrives.

dhosek 2y ago
Amphibians are sadly, more susceptible to environmental toxins than reptiles are. I think it’s because their skin is more absorbent than reptile skin, but my biological knowledge is fairly limited.
- robocat 2y ago
  Not just toxins. Amphibian chytrid fungus is a major threat to frogs worldwide.
- Suppafly 2y ago
  I sometimes hang out with people that are super into retiles and amphibians and even somewhat know a guy that raises axolotls for a university, they are very careful about they put on their hands when going out looking for them in the wild or even when handling them as pets and such. No recent use of lotions or hand sanitizer and such. It sucks having to be careful with things like bug spray when you are going to be in prime mosquito territory.

light_triad 2y ago

Reminds me of the delightfully strange short story by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar: ‘Axolotl’ is narrated by a lonely man who regularly visits the local zoo, where he becomes fascinated by the axolotls in the aquarium. In time, he states that he, too, is an axolotl, and feels he has become one of them. https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/AxolotlByJulioCortazar.html https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/Axol...

rumori 2y ago
+1 really enjoyed the whole collection of short stories from Cortazar when I read it at uni. https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Selected-Stories-Julio-Cort%C3%A1zar/dp/1784875856 https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Selected-Stories-Julio-Cort%...
gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
Curiosity about the works of man >> curiosity about the "works" of "God"/"Nature"??? Ironic that this masterpiece is about an extreme form of the latter XD
patrickscoleman 2y ago
love the story! i took a stab at translating it: https://pscoleman.me/blog/axolotl https://pscoleman.me/blog/axolotl

zh3 2y ago

Thanks to Minecraft and pester-power, we bought our son an axolotl some years ago on the condition he would look after it (figuring we'd end up looking after it anyway). And since they live a long time it's given us an out every time he asks for a new pet ;)

xvedejas 2y ago
Interesting, I had thought they were generally illegal to keep as pets, but I see now that that's only in some locations.
- hereonout2 2y ago
  They are relatively popular legal pets in Europe - though not sold in many mainstream pet shops. 100% of those kept as pets here are bred in captivity. Having kept them before, they are genuinely about as hard to care for as goldfish but need bigger tanks and a little bit more cleaning. Also super easy to breed, we let the spawn hatch once and ended up with about 70 larvae, they cannibalize quickly but 6 grew to full size and we sold them on very easily.
  - atomicnumber3 2y ago
    They do need refrigerated water. Also note most goldfish are abused, they need huge tanks 40G+ if I remember right, and not the 8-16 fl oz bowls they're stereotypically kept in. And they need filtration and would do better with a water heater. So idk if pointing to goldfish is the best indicator, even if imo you're technically correct - the refrigerating system isn't really a lot to maintain and that's the main difference.
    - zh3 2y ago
      To add to this, ideal temperature is 16C to 18C (we use a Pi to keep a running graph of the temperature). Lower is generally ok, apparently if it gets into the mid-20's they get so stress they try and escape the tank. We have a chiller, though we have also used the fairly common trick of putting ice bottles in the tank as needed (milk containers filled with water and left in the freeze for 24 hours work well).

efremjw 2y ago

https://nextgenbiologics.com/index.html https://nextgenbiologics.com/index.html

araes 2y ago

From the crowd source folks, here's the iNaturalist map on Axolotl (Ambystoma Mexicanum) [1][2] [1] Species, Map, Observation Count: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/26777-Ambystoma-mexicanum https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/26777-Ambystoma-mexicanum [2] Actual Observations with Pictures: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=26777 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&tax... Only six whole observations in the last decade. Most near Mexico City. Unfortunately, one of them's in the process of being eaten by a Clark's Grebe.

croes 2y ago

> No, the usual trio of culprits are to blame: Or just one: humans

giantfrog 2y ago

We’re really messing this place up huh

lukan 2y ago

"if one of its legs is cut off, a new limb will grow in a few hours, identical and pristine. The same process occurs with any other part of its awe-inspiring form" I doubt this works with the head?

unfixed 2y ago
I wouldn't consider the head a limb to be honest.
- lukan 2y ago
  But as "any other part of its awe-inspiring form"?
  - zshrdlu 2y ago
    Yeah casual extraordinary claim, I'm equally stumped.
- werdnapk 2y ago
  If there's a major organ in the part you cut off... good luck.
mrweasel 2y ago
It apparently does work for their brain though, you probably can't remove the whole thing, but they can grow back large chunks of their brain: https://www.livescience.com/axolotls-can-regenerate-their-brains https://www.livescience.com/axolotls-can-regenerate-their-br...

amy_petrik 2y ago

The other interesting things about axolots is they have what is called "neoteny" basically meaning the organism COULD proceed to adult form but never does - the natural axolotl is sort of a half-metamorphized creature for life, similar to a frog halfway through the tadpole->frog changes. You can induce the transformation with thyroid-type hormone stimulation (thyroid / TSH), which results in a salamander - essentially resurrecting this ancient morphology not seen in this world for a long time. Then the regenerative capabilities (seen in other amphibians as well) you can think of that as, "child humans heal better, what if the human is a child for life" in simplistic terms. There are also tradeoffs the organism makes i.e. ability to reproduce at a younger age (reproduction evolutionary win), and notably, the histology and cellular structures are simplified and less complex than say mammals, thusly making body parts easier to regenerate. It's also notable that amphibians have massive genomes, the axolotl being 10x the size of humans! - but with about the same number of genes, why? Well if mutations occur at random positions and you have ~10x more non-coding junk DNA, you've just lowered the frequency of mutations hitting coding genes, they are more likely to hit "safe" non-coding parts. All of this is important because if a mutation slips into the regenerated limb -> cancer, so we're de-risking mutations by having a massive genome https://www.mdpi.com/2221-3759/9/1/2 https://www.mdpi.com/2221-3759/9/1/2

aydyn 2y ago
I dont believe that last point is true. The processes that cause mutation (polymerase error, replication) are per base, not per genome.
- fc417fc802 2y ago
  Indeed it makes little sense that the error rate would be independent of genome length. Even in the case of radiation it's going to depend on the cross section at minimum, which is related to volume, which is related to genome length.
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  But could there be more error correction since the total storage area is larger?

thedailymail 2y ago

"It has an impressive resume, being the most studied animal in the world, subject of more investigations than even the Drosophila melanogaster or common fruit fly that resides in thousands of laboratories around the world." It would be great to have a source for this claim! Recent studies have estimated that between 10 million and 110 million (it's controversial!) lab mice are used per year in the US, representing 93–97% of all experimental animals. https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-rats-are-used-us-labs-controversial-study-says-more-100-million https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-ra...

fc417fc802 2y ago
It also just doesn't make any sense given how much cheaper and faster drosophila and c elegans both are. > representing 93–97% of all experimental animals. Experimental mammals maybe. Not animals in general.
aa-jv 2y ago
The mice aren't being studied for their mice-ness, they've been industrialised for their ease-of-production and easy-to-slaughter mammalian analog attributes. Wheras Axoloti and co., are still being studied for their unique characteristics.

turtleyacht 2y ago

Two years ago, Mexican ecologists start campaign to save axolotl - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38437747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38437747 (2023) (35 points, 9 comments). Here is a link with a range of adoption plans: https://www.ib.unam.mx/ib/unidades-investigacion/departamento-de-zoologia/restauracion-ecologica/index.php https://www.ib.unam.mx/ib/unidades-investigacion/departament...

mhb 2y ago

"Many ask me, 'How do I say your name?'". https://www.instagram.com/p/BgSGVvZlOz-/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BgSGVvZlOz-/

tanseydavid 2y ago
Well played. Thank you for that.

nofunsir 2y ago

I already have a scroll bar. Enough with this js "ux" bs