Conference Paper

The fauna of the Al Hoota Cave in Northern Oman

Kruckenhauser, L., Reginald, V. and Sattmann, H.

Record Number:
3897
Year:
2016
Abstract:
The Al Hoota Cave System has a length of 5 km and several connected subterraneous lakes, it is situated in the in the Western Al Hajar Mountains of the Northern Oman. Due to its exceptional wealth of dripstones and numerous underground lakes, it was developed as a show cave from 2001 – 2006. The cave is of Plio-Pleistocene age, roughly one to three million years old. The most sensational faunal element of the Al Hoota cave is a population of Garra barreimiae FOWLER & STEINITZ, 1956 which was discovered in 1980. G. barreimiae is a cyprinid fish endemic to the southeastern Arabian Peninsula. Individuals of the cave population exhibit a typical troglomorphic phenotype with no pigmentation and lack of externally visible eyes. Surface populations of this species live in the surrounding wadis. Genetic analyses showed that the cave population is genetically isolated from the surface, but there is also an indication for geneflow from the cave to the surface (Kruckenhauser et al. 2011). Some of the individuals we collected on the surface exhibit an intermediate phenotype, with eyes and pigmentation reduced at different stages (see also abstract by Kirchner et al.). Other vertebrates which could be found in the Al Hoota cave system are the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus), the Muscat mouse-tailed bat (Rhinopoma muscatellum), and a gecko species of the genus Ptyodactylus most probably P. orlovi. Two species which has been described from specimens from the Al Hoota Cave are the Al Hoota Hunting Spider, Spariolenus secundus JÄGER, 2006 from the family Sparassidae and the gastropod Gulella protruda NEUBERT & FRANK, 1996 from the family of Streptaxidae. Also several beetles can be found in the waterbodies of the cave, one species Hydraena putearius JÄCH & DIAS, 2000 has been described in the Oman.
Times Cited:
1
Conference Name:
23rd International Conference on Subterranean Biology
Conference Year:
2016
Conference Location:
2016
Conference Location:
2016
Related Records:
Reid, G. McG. (1978)
A sytematic study of labeine cyprinid fishes with particular reference to the comparative morphology, functional morphology and morphometrics of African Labeo species
Reid, G. McG. (1982)
The form, function and phylogenetic significance of the vomero-palatine organ in Cyprinid fishes
Sandford, M. (1983)
Ervaringen met enkele minder bekende holenvissen
Banister, K.E. (1984)
A subterranean population of Garra barreimiae (Teleostei, Cyprinidae) from Oman, with comments on the concept of regresive evolution
Waltham, A. C., Brown, R. D. and Middleton, T. C. (1985)
Karst and caves in the Jabal Akhdar, Oman
Fausel, P. (1990)
Das Sozialverhalten der Hohlenbarbe Garra barreimiae (Cyprinidae, Pisces)
Banister, K.E., Bell, J. and Crumpler, M. (1992)
Omani blind cave fish
Hanna, S.S. and Al-Belushi, M. (1996)
Introduction to the caves of Oman
Feulner, GR (1998)
Wadi fish of the UAE
Juberthie, C., Magniez, G., Decu, V. and Povara, I. (2001)
Oman
Aden, E. (2004)
Ontogenetic eye regression in the cave fish Garra barreimiae
Timmermann, M., Schlupp, I. and Plath, M. (2004)
Shoaling behaviour in a surface-dwelling and cave-dwelling population of a barb Garra barreimiae (Cyprinidae: Teleostei)
Kollmann, H., Sattmann, H. and Seeman, R. (2007)
"Al Hoota", ein karst- und hohlenkundlisches Forschungs- und Tourismusprojekt im Sultanat Oman
Colli, L., Paglianti, A., Berti, R., Gandolfi, G. and Tagliavini, J. (2009)
Molecular phylogeny of the blind cavefish Phreatichthys andruzzii and Garra barreimiae within the family Cyprinidae
Timmermann, M and Plath, M (2009)
Phototactic response and light sensitivity in an epigean and a hypogean population of a barb (Garra barreimiae, Cyprinidae)
Aden, E. (2010)
Eye development in the cave fish Garra barreimiae
Kruckenhauser, L., Haring, E., Seeman, R. and Sattmann, H. (2011)
Genetic differentiation between cave- and surface dwelling populations of Garra barreimiae (Cyprinidae) in Oman
Kirchner, S., Weimaier, T., Rattei, T., Sattmann, H. and Kruckenhauser, L. (2014)
Characterisation of 19 new microsatellite loci for the Omani barb Garra barreimiae from 454 sequences
Hamidan, N.A., Geiger, M.F. and Freyhof, J. (2014)
Garra jordanica, a new species from the Dead Sea basin with remarks on the relationship of G. ghorensis, G. tibanica and G. rufa (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)
Sayyadzadeh, G., Esmaeili, H.R. and Freyhof, J. (2015)
Garra mondica, a new species from the Mond River drainage with remarks on the genus Garra from the Persian Gulf basin in Iran
Freyhof, J., Hamidan, N.A., Feulner, G.R. and Harrison, I. (2015)
Chapter 3. The status and distribution of freshwater fishes of the Arabian Peninsula
García, N., Harrison, I., Cox, N. and Tognelli, M.F. (2015)
The status and distribution of freshwater biodiversity in the Arabian Peninsula.
Lujan, N.K. and Conway, K.W. (2015)
Life in the fast lane: A review of rheophily in freshwater fishes
Esmaeili, H.R., Sayyadzadeh, G., Coad, B.W. and Eagderi, S. (2016)
Review of the genus Garra Hamilton, 1822 in Iran with description of a new species: a morpho-molecular approach (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)
Lyon, R.G., Geiger, M.F. and Freyhof, J. (2016)
Garra sindhi, a new species from the Jebel Samhan Nature Reserve in Oman (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).
Kirchner, S., Sattmann, H., Plan, L., Krenn, H., Victor, R., Haring, E. and Kruckenhauser, L. (2016)
As above, so below? Testing for gene flow between cave and surface-dwelling populations of Garra barreimiae
Kruckenhauser, L., Reginald, V. and Sattmann, H. (2016)
The fauna of the Al Hoota Cave in Northern Oman
Bagheri, M., Goudarzi, F., Zalaghi, A.H. and Savabieasfahani, M. (2016)
Habitat characteristics and population size of Iranocypris typhlops, the Iran cave barb
Kirchner, S., Sattmann, H., Haring, E., Plan, L., Victor, R. and Kruckenhauser, L. (2017)
Investigating gene flow between the blind cavefish Garra barreimiae and its conspecific surface populations
Nebeshwar, K and Vishwanath, W (2017)
On the snout and oromandibular morphology of genus Garra, description of two new species from the Koladyne River basin in Mizoram, India, and redescription of G. manipurensis (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)
Esmaeili, H.R., Mehraban, H., Abbasi, K., Keivany, Y. and Coad, B. (2017)
Review and updated checklist of freshwater fishes of Iran: Taxonomy, distribution and conservation status
Pichler, A., Ahnelt, H., Kirchner, S., Sattmann, H., Haring, E., Handschuh, S., Freyhof, J., Victor, R. and Kruckenhauser, L. (2018)
The morphological diversity of Garra barreimiae [Teleostei: Cyprinidae]
Kirchner, S., Kruckenhauser, L., Pichler. A., Borkenhagen, K. and Freyhof, J. (2020)
Revision of the Garra species of the Hajar Mountains in Oman and the United Arab Emirates with the description of two new species (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)
Englmaier, G.K., Viñuela Rodríguez, N., Waidbacher, H., Palandacic, A., Tesfaye, G., Gessl, W. and Meulenbroek, P. (2020)
New data on Garra makiensis (Cyprinidae, Labeoinae) from the Awash River (Ethiopia) with remarks on its relationships to congeners on the Arabian Peninsula
Freyhof, J., Els, J., Feulner, G.R., Hamidan, N.A. and Krupp, F. (2020)
Freshwater fishes of the Arabian peninsula
Saemi-Komsari, M., Mousavi-Sabet, H., Sattari, M., Eagderi, S., Vatandoust, S. and Doadrio, I. (2020)
Descriptive osteology of Garra rossica (Nikolskii 1900)
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)
Kirchner, S., Sattmann, H., Haring, E., Victor, R. and Kruckenhauser, L. (2021)
Hidden diversity—Delimitation of cryptic species and phylogeography of the cyprinid Garra species complex in Northern Oman.
Zamani-Faradonbe, M., Keivany, Y., Dorafshan, S. and Zhang, E. (2021)
Two new species of Garra (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from western Iran
Zamani-Faradonbe M. and Keivany Y. (2021)
Biodiversity and distribution of Garra species (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Iran
Zamani-Faradonbe, M. and Keivany, Y. (2021)
Comparative osteology of two Garra species (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae) from Hormuz and Sistan basins of Iran
Zamani-Faradonbe, M., Zhang, E. and Keivany, Y. (2021)
Garra hormuzensis, a new species from the upper Kol River drainage in the Persian Gulf basin (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)