Prof Peter Deardon: the genetic secrets of the velvet worm

Peripatus (aka velvet worms or ngāokeoke) are an ancient and fascinating native nocturnal crawling creature.

This week in an Otago University fridge a group of peripatus had babies. 

Celebrating the birth was Professor Peter Deardon, director of Genomics Aotearoa.

He's particularly interested in sequencing their genome as they are akin to living fossils, having survived over 500 million years virtually unchanged.