New to nature no 111: Typhleotris mararybe

A species of cave fish discovered in Madagascar commemorates the fever caught by the people who discovered itMost of the 150 or so types of cave fish pale in comparison to a newly discovered species from an isolated karst sinkhole in south-western Madagascar. Fish living in perpetual darkness typically share a syndrome of convergent features, including the loss of eyes and pigmentation accompanied by enhanced non-visual sensory structures on the head. The new species, Typhleotris mararybe, is small, about 38mm, and combines dark pigmentation with an absence of eyes and well-developed sensory canals and pores on its head. Its body is uniformly brown in colour, as are the basal one-third of its caudal, pelvic, pectoral and anal fins, whose extremities are without pigment and white.Cave fishes have been known to exist in Madagascar for a century, but the extent of the fauna and details of their biology, relationships and distributions remain largely unstudied. While the four cave-inhabiting fishes from the island nation are all gobioids, they represent two separate evolutionary lineages.First is a single species of the Gobiidae genus, Glossogobius, whose other species are found in Africa and Indonesia. Second is the genus Typhleotris of the family Milyeringidae, all three species of which are endemic to Madagascar.John S Sparks, of the American Museum of Natural History, and Prosanta Chakrabarty, of Louisiana State University, described the new species, giving it a name wit...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: World news Features Animals The Observer Zoology Environment Science Wildlife Source Type: news