Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode, we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

If you've ever seen a flying fish shoot out of the water and zip along above the surface

for long distances, you know how magical it can be.

It can do that because its paired pectoral and pelvic fins are longer and more rigid

than those of other fish.

They act like airfoils, allowing the flying fish to escape predators below the surface.

It's a quirky triumph of evolution, these creatures that were once strictly aquatic,

transformed into something that can become temporarily airborne through just a few modifications in body shape.

But how did they evolve?

That's next.

Explore more science mysteries in the Quanta book Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire,

published by the MIT Press.

Available now at Amazon.com,

Barnes & Noble.com, or your local bookstore.

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It helps people find this podcast.

Recently, a group of researchers led by Matthew Harris of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital reported the genetic basis for the evolution of the unusual flying fish fins.

They discovered that changes in just two genes were sufficient to create the distinctive body shape of flying fish.

When those mutations occurred in a species of common aquarium fish, its proportions began to shift in similar ways.

Harris says when they started out in the field, there was no thinking that they'd be able to make these large jumps using such simple rules.

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