Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)

Cave fish have rarely been investigated with regard to their inner ear morphology, hearing abilities, and acoustic communication. Based on a previous study that revealed morphological differences in the saccular otolith between a cave and two surface populations of Poecilia mexicana, we checked for...

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Autores principales: Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja, Ladich, Friedrich, Riesch, Rüdiger, Plath, Martin
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905516/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20430090
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2010.04.001
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author Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja
Ladich, Friedrich
Riesch, Rüdiger
Plath, Martin
author_facet Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja
Ladich, Friedrich
Riesch, Rüdiger
Plath, Martin
author_sort Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja
collection PubMed
description Cave fish have rarely been investigated with regard to their inner ear morphology, hearing abilities, and acoustic communication. Based on a previous study that revealed morphological differences in the saccular otolith between a cave and two surface populations of Poecilia mexicana, we checked for additional differences in utricular and lagenar otoliths and tested whether different populations have similar hearing sensitivities. We found pronounced differences in the shape of all three otoliths. Otoliths of the saccule and lagena from cave fish differed from those of surface fish in the features of the face oriented towards the sensory epithelium. In addition, otoliths of the utricle and lagena were significantly heavier in cave fish. Auditory sensitivities were measured between 100 and 1500 Hz, utilizing the auditory evoked potential recording technique. We found similar hearing abilities in cave and surface fish, with greatest sensitivity between 200 and 300 Hz. An acoustic survey revealed that neither ecotype produced species-specific sounds. Our data indicate that cave dwelling altered the otolith morphology in Atlantic mollies, probably due to metabolic differences. Different otolith morphology, however, did not affect general auditory sensitivity or acoustic behavior.
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spelling pubmed-29055162010-08-04 Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae) Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja Ladich, Friedrich Riesch, Rüdiger Plath, Martin Hear Res Research Paper Cave fish have rarely been investigated with regard to their inner ear morphology, hearing abilities, and acoustic communication. Based on a previous study that revealed morphological differences in the saccular otolith between a cave and two surface populations of Poecilia mexicana, we checked for additional differences in utricular and lagenar otoliths and tested whether different populations have similar hearing sensitivities. We found pronounced differences in the shape of all three otoliths. Otoliths of the saccule and lagena from cave fish differed from those of surface fish in the features of the face oriented towards the sensory epithelium. In addition, otoliths of the utricle and lagena were significantly heavier in cave fish. Auditory sensitivities were measured between 100 and 1500 Hz, utilizing the auditory evoked potential recording technique. We found similar hearing abilities in cave and surface fish, with greatest sensitivity between 200 and 300 Hz. An acoustic survey revealed that neither ecotype produced species-specific sounds. Our data indicate that cave dwelling altered the otolith morphology in Atlantic mollies, probably due to metabolic differences. Different otolith morphology, however, did not affect general auditory sensitivity or acoustic behavior. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press 2010-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2905516/ /pubmed/20430090 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2010.04.001 Text en © 2010 Elsevier B.V. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Open Access under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) license
spellingShingle Research Paper
Schulz-Mirbach, Tanja
Ladich, Friedrich
Riesch, Rüdiger
Plath, Martin
Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title_full Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title_fullStr Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title_full_unstemmed Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title_short Otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)
title_sort otolith morphology and hearing abilities in cave- and surface-dwelling ecotypes of the atlantic molly, poecilia mexicana (teleostei: poeciliidae)
topic Research Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905516/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20430090
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2010.04.001
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