I just saw over on Science Daily that they have found lots of new Green Flourescent Proteins in Amphioxus, aka the lancelet (which is the closest invertebrate relative to our phylum, Chordata).
The article, with a nice green glowing picture, is here.
I thought this was a semi-boring animal until I discovered "The Amphioxus Song." It CAN'T be boring if it's got a song about it, right? Plus, I love science songs, especially when they are relevant enough to share with students!
Here's a snip from the song:
A fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day.
It hadn't any parapods nor setae to display.
It hadn't any eyes nor jaws, nor ventral nervous cord,
But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.
Apparently, the poor Amphioxus does not make the news very much. I did a Google Search and all I came up with was a similar article (albeit with more pictures) and a copy of it in Russian. Maybe some starving grad student could take up the cause?
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