A striking video of a developing zebrafish embryo has won the twelfth annual Nikon Small World In Motion competition.

Dr Eduardo E. Zattara's time-lapse video was taken over an eight-hour period, and shows lateral line cells and melanocytes migrating through the fish's body.

He used fluorescence to contrast the various cell functions during this developmental period in the embryo.

The green lines are progenitor cells of the vertebrate's sensory organs, while in orange are the melanin-forming melanocytes moving below its skin.

Dr Zattara, from CONICET in Argentina, said: 'This recording came out very clean and required almost no post-processing. It is an astonishing display of the dynamics of neural crest cell migration.

'The result was a video that was both biologically informative and visually striking. It was by far my favourite microscopy video to render.'