Conference Paper
Cavefishes as models for sensory adaptation
Soares, D.
Record Number:
4741
Year:
2010
Abstract:
Adaptation is the context in
which behaviors and underlying nervous systems evolve. A quick change
of environments poses a challenge for adaptation and extreme
environments pose harsh. Therefore such environment provides valuable
insights in to the evolutionary malleability of nervous systems. The
permanent darkness present in caves imposes harsh sensory constraints
that offer a distinct opportunity to examine how sensory modules not only
become transformed, but also how they influence each other's changes.
Troglodytic animals are known to have specialized sensory systems as
outcomes of both constructive and regressive traits. Of all cave dwelling
vertebrates, cavefishes are an especially suitable animal model for
comparative studies because of their diverse phylogeny and world
distribution. Moreover, once fish have colonized a cave they rarely reenter
or leave the cave so the duration of adaptation can be more easily
determined and less complicated to describe. Species of cavefishes have
independently colonized caves all over the world. At a first glance all
have lost eyesight but it is unclear what modalities if any have become
hypertrophied as a response and rules are yet to be established. Here we
examined two cavefishes Ogilbia pearsei (Yucatan, Mexico) and
Astroblepus pholeter (Napo, Ecuador).
Times Cited:
2
Conference Name:
9th International Congress of Neuroethology
Conference Year:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Relevent Species: