Soares Daphne, Niemiller Matthew L, Higgs Dennis M
Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA.
Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2016;877:187-95. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-21059-9_9.
Caves and associated subterranean habitats represent some of the harshest environments on Earth, yet many organisms, including fishes, have colonized and thrive in these habitats despite the complete absence of light, and other abiotic and biotic constraints. Over 170 species of fishes are considered obligate subterranean inhabitants (stygobionts) that exhibit some degree of troglomorphy, including degeneration of eyes and reduction in pigmentation. To compensate for lack of vision, many species have evolved constructive changes to non-visual sensory modalities. In this chapter we review hearing in cavefishes, with particular emphasize on our own studies on amblyopsid cavefishes. Hearing in cavefishes has not been well studied to date, as hearing ability has only been examined in four species. Two species show no differences in hearing ability relative to their surface relatives, while the other two species (family Amblyopsidae) exhibit regression in the form of reduced hearing range and reduction in hair cell densities on sensory epithelia. In addition to reviewing our current knowledge on cavefish hearing, we offer suggestions for future avenues of research on cavefish hearing and discuss the influence of Popper and Fay on the field of cavefish bioacoustics.
洞穴及相关的地下栖息地代表了地球上一些最恶劣的环境，然而，尽管完全没有光线以及存在其他非生物和生物限制因素，许多生物，包括鱼类，已经在这些栖息地定殖并繁衍生息。超过170种鱼类被认为是专性地下居民（穴居生物），它们表现出一定程度的洞穴形态特征，包括眼睛退化和色素沉着减少。为了弥补视力的不足，许多物种在非视觉感官方式上发生了适应性变化。在本章中，我们回顾了洞穴鱼的听觉，特别强调了我们自己对盲鳉科洞穴鱼的研究。迄今为止，洞穴鱼的听觉尚未得到充分研究，因为仅对四个物种的听觉能力进行了检测。两个物种与其地表亲缘物种相比，听觉能力没有差异，而另外两个物种（盲鳉科）则表现出听觉范围缩小和感觉上皮毛细胞密度降低的退化现象。除了回顾我们目前关于洞穴鱼听觉的知识外，我们还为未来洞穴鱼听觉研究的途径提出了建议，并讨论了波珀和费伊对洞穴鱼生物声学领域的影响。
