Journal Article
Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish
Flammang, B.E., Suvarnaraksha, A., Markiewicz, J. and Soares, D.
Record Number:
2889
Year:
2016
Journal:
Scientific Reports
Pages:
23711
Volume:
6
Abstract:
Fishes have adapted a number of different behaviors to move out of the water, but none have been described as being able to walk on land with a tetrapod-like gait. Here we show that the blind cavefish Cryptotora thamicola walks and climbs waterfalls with a salamander-like diagonal-couplets lateral sequence gait and has evolved a robust pelvic girdle that shares morphological features associated with terrestrial vertebrates. In all other fishes, the pelvic bones are suspended in a muscular sling or loosely attached to the pectoral girdle anteriorly. In contrast, the pelvic girdle of Cryptotora is a large, broad puboischiadic plate that is joined to the iliac process of a hypertrophied sacral rib; fusion of these bones in tetrapods creates an acetabulum. The vertebral column in the sacral area has large anterior and posterior zygapophyses, transverse processes, and broad neural spines, all of which are associated with terrestrial organisms. The diagonal-couplet lateral sequence gait was accomplished by rotation of the pectoral and pelvic girdles creating a standing wave of the axial body. These findings are significant because they represent the first example of behavioural and morphological adaptation in an extant fish that converges on the tetrapodal walking behaviour and morphology.
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species:
Related Records:
Kottelat, M. (1988)
Two species of cavefishes from northern Thailand in the genera Nemachilus and Homaloptera (Osteichthyes, Homalopteridae)
Kottelat, M. (1998)Homaloptera yuwonoi, a new species of hillstream loach from Borneo, with a new generic name for H. thamicola (Teleostei: Balitoridae)
Borowsky, R.L. and Vidthayanon, C. (2001)Nucleotide diversity in populations of balitorid cave fishes from Thailand
Deharveng, L. and Bedos, A. (2001)Thailande
Trajano, E., Mugue, N., Krejca, J., Vidthayanon, C., Smart, D. and Borowsky, R. (2002)Habitat, distribution, ecology and behaviour of cave balitorids from Thailand (Teleostei: Cypriniformes)
Prokofiev, A.M. (2010)Morphological classification of loaches (Nemacheilinae)
Kottelat, M. (2012)Conspectus cobitidum: An inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei)
Brancelj, A., Boonyanusith, C., Watiroyram, S. and Sanoamuang, L. (2013)The groundwater-dwelling fauna of Southeast Asia
Lujan, N.K. and Conway, K.W. (2015)Life in the fast lane: A review of rheophily in freshwater fishes
Flammang, B.E., Suvarnaraksha, A., Markiewicz, J. and Soares, D. (2016)Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish
Sherwin, F. (2016)Wall-climbing cave fish: Evolutionary intermediate?
Zimmer, C. (2016)Researchers find fish that walks the way land Vertebrates do
Anonymous (2018)New walking cavefish study explores origins of quadrapedal walking
Anonymous (2018)First steps. Scientists launch evolutionary study to explore the origins of fish that walk
Anonymous (2018)New walking cavefish study explores origins of quadrapedal walking
Ellis, M. (2018)The recorded fauna of the limestone caves of Thailand to April 2018
Liew, J.H., Chua, K.W.J., Arsenault, E.R, Thorp, J.H., Suvarnaraksha, A., Amirrudin, A. and Yeo, D.C.J. (2019)Quantifying terrestrial carbon in freshwater food webs using amino acid isotope analysis: Case study with an endemic cavefish
Willis, J., Burt de Perera, T., Newport, C., Poncelet, G., Sturr, C.J. and Thomas, A. (2019)The structure and function of the sucker systems of hill stream loaches
Crawford, C.H., Randall, Z.S., Hart, P.B., Page, L.M., Chakrabarty, P., Suvarnaraksha, A. and Flammang, B.E. (2020)Skeletal and muscular pelvic morphology of hillstream loaches (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae)
Ellis, M. (2020)The caves of northern Thailand
Zhongming, Z., Linong, L., Xiaona, Y., Wangqiang, Z. and Wei, L. (2020)Study of Asia's hillstream loaches reveals keys to fish family's land-walking abilities
Crawford, C.H. (2021)These fish were made for walking: morphology and walking kinematics in balitorid loaches
Crawford, C.H., Webber-Schultz, A., Hart, P.B., Randall, Z.S., Cerrato-Morales, C., Kellogg, A.B., Amplo, H.E., Suvarnaraksha, A., Page, L.M., Chakrabarty, P. and Flammang, B.E. (2022)They like to move it (move it): walking kinematics of balitorid loaches of Thailand
Flammang, B.E. (2022)Bioinspired design in research: Evolution as beta-testing