Study: Blind Cavefish Lost Eyesight To Conserve Energy
- 9 years ago
New research supports the idea that the Mexican blind cavefish, evolved away its eyesight in order to conserve energy in a dark environment where food is hard to come by.
One species of cave-dwelling fish has no eyes—though it used to.
And now, researchers in Sweden just might have isolated the reason behind the adaptive process that resulted in visual deletion.
The Mexican blind cavefish, is believed to have evolved away its eyesight in order to conserve energy in a dark and food-scarce environment.
To test their hypothesis, researchers compared energy consumption in the blind version of the fish with sighted, surface-dwelling members of the species.
They found that in younger more formative fish in particular, vision consumed up to
One species of cave-dwelling fish has no eyes—though it used to.
And now, researchers in Sweden just might have isolated the reason behind the adaptive process that resulted in visual deletion.
The Mexican blind cavefish, is believed to have evolved away its eyesight in order to conserve energy in a dark and food-scarce environment.
To test their hypothesis, researchers compared energy consumption in the blind version of the fish with sighted, surface-dwelling members of the species.
They found that in younger more formative fish in particular, vision consumed up to