Inside a Zebrafish
This image shows off some of what’s inside a zebrafish. You can see many of the zebrafish’s structures, including its bones and scales and parts of its lymphatic system.
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DownloadInside a Zebrafish
This image shows off some of what’s inside a zebrafish. You can see many of the zebrafish’s structures, including its bones and scales and parts of its lymphatic system.
What am I looking at?
This is a fluorescently labeled zebrafish. The scales and bones are blue (1) and the lymphatic system is orange (2).
Biology in the background
The zebrafish is a great model organism because it breeds relatively quickly, has a fully mapped genome, and is relatively inexpensive to maintain in a lab.
This image shows the zebrafish’s skeletal system and scales, even the tiny bones in its fins. It also shows its lymphatic system, which filters and maintains the correct balance of fluids in its body and plays an important role in delivering immune cells to where they are needed. Being able to view physiological systems in the context of the whole organism gives researchers insights into the organism’s structure and organization.
Zebrafish are relatively small, growing up to 4 centimeters long, or roughly twice the size of a human thumbnail.
Technique
This image was created using confocal microscopy.
Daniel Castranova, Brant Weinstein, and Bakary Samasa, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development