User:Kiesol Stockholm/Channichthyidae

Under "Reason for trait loss" -at the end of the paragraph
Although most research suggests that the loss of hemoglobin in icefish was a neutral or maladaptive trait that arose due to a random evolutionary event, some researchers have suggested that it may be possible that the loss of hemoglobin might be tied to a necessary adaptation for the icefish. Most animals require their iron for hemoglobin production(and the subsequent oxygen enrichment) and iron is often regulated by feeding on iron-rich food sources, like many other hemoglobin based fish species. Due to the the lower amounts of hemoglobin across several Antarctic species, it may be that this species survived by adopting minimalizing iron requirements. The minimization could have aided the species survival 8.5 million years ago when Arctic diversity plummeted dramatically.

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Channichthyidae