Did cavefish trade eyes for good taste?
By John Travis
From Boston, Mass., at a meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology
Two eyes for a bigger jaw and a more sensitive palate. That’s the evolutionary bargain seemingly struck by certain cave-dwelling fish in Mexico, according to a research group led William R. Jeffery of the University of Maryland in College Park.
The researchers study Astyanax mexicanus, a freshwater fish that has diverged into a sighted, surface-dwelling form and a blind, cave-dwelling form. The latter has eyes during its early embryonic stage, but they quickly degenerate. The cave-dwelling fish do, however, have larger jaws, more teeth, and a greater number of taste buds than their sighted relatives do.