Typhlichthys undescribed species
[Graening, Fenolio and Slay 2011]
| ORDER | SUB-ORDER | FAMILY |
|---|---|---|
| Percopsiformes | Percopsiformes | Amblyopsidae |
Synonyms
Typhlichthys subterraneus Girard 1859 (in part)
Country
USASystematics
There are nine known and named taxa in the Family Amblyopsidae. Of these six are subterranean fishes with the usual troglomorphic characters of reduced eyes and pigment and permanent subterranean existence, and three are epigean fishes with normal eyes and pigment. Recent molecular and morphological evidence produced by Hart et al. (2020) demonstrates that the relationship between these hypogean and epigean fishes is not simple. There are four major clades within the Family:
1. Typhlichthys subterraneus and Typhlichthys eigenmanni are sister species and sister to this pair is Speoplatyrhinus poulsoni. However, T. subterraneus is quite clearly divided into two subgroups, one of which is closer to T. eigenmanni than it is to the other group of T. subterraneus. The only way to read the cladogram for this group is that it consists of three taxa, one of which is currently un-named. This clade are all subterranean fishes.
2. Two of the epigean fishes, Forbesichthys papilliferus and Forbesichthys agassizii, are sister to each other and their sister is the hypogean species Amblyopsis spelaea.
The two remaining clades contain one species each but their relationships to the other six species is ambiguous:
3a. Sister to the above groups is epigean Chologaster cornuta with hypogean Troglichthys rosae sister to all other taxa.
3b. Sister to the above groups is hypogean Troglichthys rosae with epigean Chologaster cornuta sister to all other taxa.
Given the fact that the distribution of Chologaster cornuta is very far from the distributions of the other taxa 3b seems the most parsimonious explanation. Amblyopsis hoosieri is not included in the paper of Hart et al. (in press) but one would expect it to be in group 2 above based on geography.
This analysis does not take into account the ten possible cryptic taxa, currently subsumed within Typhlichthys subterraneus, identified by Graening, Fenolio and Slay (2011), Niemiller et al. (2013) and Hart, Burress and Armbruster (2016).
Conservation Status
MuG [NE]
Key References
- Romero, A. and Conner, M. (2007)
- Graening, G.O., Fenolio, D.B. and Slay, M.E. (2011)
- Venarsky, M.P., Huntsman, B.M., Huryn, A.D., Benstead, J.P. and Kuhajda, B.R. (2014)
- Hart, P.B., Niemiller, M.L., Burress, E.D., Armbruster, J.W., Ludt, W.B. and Chakrabarty, P. (2020)
- Adams, G.L., Burr, B.M. and Warren, M.L. (2020)
| Romero, A. and Conner, M. | Journal Article | 2007 | Status report for the southern cavefish, Typhlichthys subterraneus in Arkansas |
| Graening, G.O., Fenolio, D.B. and Slay, M.E. | Book | 2011 | Cave life of Oklahoma and Arkansas: exploration and conservation of subterranean biodiversity |
| Venarsky, M.P., Huntsman, B.M., Huryn, A.D., Benstead, J.P. and Kuhajda, B.R. | Journal Article | 2014 | Quantitative food web analysis supports the energy‑limitation hypothesis in cave stream ecosystems |
| Hart, P.B., Niemiller, M.L., Burress, E.D., Armbruster, J.W., Ludt, W.B. and Chakrabarty, P. | Journal Article | 2020 | Cave-adapted evolution in the North American Amblyopsid fishes Inferred using phylogenomics and geometric morphometrics |
| Adams, G.L., Burr, B.M. and Warren, M.L. | Book Section | 2020 | Amblyopsidae: Cavefishes |