Subterranean Fishes of the World

The fish is known by the common name of Tytoona Cave Scuplin.

Country

Types

The fishes from Tytoona Cave are not distinguishable from epigean Cottus bairdii and there are no types.

Distribution

Known only from the location they were originally found in: Tytoona Cave, Sinking Valley, Blair County, Pennsylvania, USA (40^o36’04”N, 78^o13’01”W), 273masl (Espinasa, Mendyk, Schaffer and Cahill 2013). This is the third most northerly of all subterranean fishes after Barbatula undescribed species from Germany (47^o50’48.48”N, 8^o51’28.91”E) and Cottus bairdii-cognatus from further north in Pennsylvania (41^o9’23.2”N, 77^o12’21.1W).

Systematics

Espinasa et al. (2013) used DNA sequences to determine the relationships of the cave sculpin: "Molecular data have been obtained for 15 individuals: 14 samples from Tytoona Cave and one from a surface specimen from the Little Juniata River. The 16S rRNA fragments with primers excluded were 575 bp long. All cave and surface specimens had identical sequences, which when compared with the available Genbank sequences, were identical to “haplotype 2” of a Cottus bairdii collected from Blockhouse Creek in central Pennsylvania (GenBank GQ280792.1) and four bp (0.7%) different from another C. bairdii of undescribed provenance (GenBank AY539018.2)."

Biological Notes

Espinasa et al. 2013 consider these fishes are cave-dwellers on the basis of: "...they were considered to be cave-adapted due to the presence of ovigerous females, a lack of evidence for starvation and primarily because the cephalic lateralis pores are significantly larger than those of similar-sized surface fish. Larger pores may correlate to an enhancement in mechanosensory ability, which would allow cavefish to thrive better in a dark environment."