A Cavernicolous Form of the Poeciliid Fish Poecilia sphenops from Tabasco, Mexico

Gordon, Myron; Rosen, Donn Eric

doi:10.2307/1440903

Cited by 105 publications

(151 citation statements)

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“…We collected fish from two sites that are affected by barbasco, and two sites that were unaffected and located upstream of barbasco introduction (figure 1b). Both affected and unaffected sites included sulphidic cave ecotypes (sites 2 and 3, which correspond to cave chambers V and X according to Gordon & Rosen [15]) and sulphidic surface ecotypes (sites 1 and 4, which correspond to El Azufre I and II according to Tobler et al [11]), hence naturally occurring H 2 S was present at all sites [16]. Even though gene flow is present among some sites, there is significant genetic differentiation, and populations within barbasco groups are not more closely related to one another than populations of different barbasco regimes (electronic supplementary material).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a livebearing fish

et al. 2010

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Human-induced environmental change can affect the evolutionary trajectory of populations. In Mexico, indigenous Zoque people annually introduce barbasco, a fish toxicant, into the Cueva del Azufre to harvest fish during a religious ceremony. Here, we investigated tolerance to barbasco in fish from sites exposed and unexposed to the ritual. We found that barbasco tolerance increases with body size and differs between the sexes. Furthermore, fish from sites exposed to the ceremony had a significantly higher tolerance. Consequently, the annual ceremony may not only affect population structure and gene flow among habitat types, but the increased tolerance in exposed fish may indicate adaptation to human cultural practices in a natural population on a very small spatial scale.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a livebearing fish

et al. 2010

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“…All sites were located within 4 km of each other and were situated near the village of Tapijulapa in the Mexican state of Tabasco (Tobler et al 2008a). The sulfidic cave is segregated into different chambers with varying exposure of light and high densities of Poecilia mexicana (Gordon and Rosen 1962;Parzefall 2001), while the nonsulfidic cave is considerably smaller than the sulfur cave, completely dark, and maintains only a small P. mexicana population (Tobler et al 2008b). Fish from the sulfidic surface habitat were collected in the El Azufre, a stream that drains the Cueva del Azufre and eventually joins the Rio Oxolotan.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction of Energetic Demands through Modification of Body Size and Routine Metabolic Rates in Extremophile Fish

Passow¹,

Greenway²,

Arias‐Rodríguez³

et al. 2015

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Variation in energy availability or maintenance costs in extreme environments can exert selection for efficient energy use, and reductions in organismal energy demand can be achieved in two ways: reducing body mass or metabolic suppression. Whether long-term exposure to extreme environmental conditions drives adaptive shifts in body mass or metabolic rates remains an open question. We studied body size variation and variation in routine metabolic rates in locally adapted populations of extremophile fish (Poecilia mexicana) living in toxic, hydrogen sulfide-rich springs and caves. We quantified size distributions and routine metabolic rates in wild-caught individuals from four habitat types. Compared with ancestral populations in nonsulfidic surface habitats, extremophile populations were characterized by significant reductions in body size. Despite elevated metabolic rates in cave fish, the body size reduction precipitated in significantly reduced energy demands in all extremophile populations. Laboratory experiments on common garden-raised fish indicated that elevated routine metabolic rates in cave fish likely have a genetic basis. The results of this study indicate that adaptation to extreme environments directly impacts energy metabolism, with fish living in cave and sulfide spring environments expending less energy overall during routine metabolism.

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“…One of the few vertebrates known from a permanently sulphidic habitat is a cave form of a poeciliid fish, the cave molly (Poecilia mexicana), from the southern Mexican Cueva del Azufre (Gordon and Rosen 1962). Several H 2 Srich springs feed a creek that runs through the cave.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival in an extreme habitat: the roles of behaviour and energy limitation

Plath

Tobler

Riesch

et al. 2007

Naturwissenschaften

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Extreme habitats challenge animals with highly adverse conditions, like extreme temperatures or toxic substances. In this paper, we report of a fish (Poecilia mexicana) inhabiting a limestone cave in Mexico. Several springs inside the cave are rich in toxic H 2 S. We demonstrate that a behavioural adaptation, aquatic surface respiration (ASR), allows for the survival of P. mexicana in this extreme, sulphidic habitat. Without the possibility to perform ASR, the survival rate of P. mexicana was low even at comparatively low H 2 S concentrations. Furthermore, we show that food limitation affects the survival of P. mexicana pointing to energetically costly physiological adaptations to detoxify H 2 S.

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A Cavernicolous Form of the Poeciliid Fish Poecilia sphenops from Tabasco, Mexico

Cited by 105 publications

References 1 publication

An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a livebearing fish

An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a livebearing fish

Reduction of Energetic Demands through Modification of Body Size and Routine Metabolic Rates in Extremophile Fish

Survival in an extreme habitat: the roles of behaviour and energy limitation

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