Biology of Subterranean Fishes
Eleonora Trajano: Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biosciências da USP, Sao Paulo – SP, Brazil
Maria Elina Bichuette: Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos – SP, Brazil
B.G. Kapoor: Formerly Professor of Zoology, Jodhpur University, India
ISBN 978-1-5780-8670-2, 2010, 494 pages, hc, US $ 139.95


About the Book
In most habitats, adaptations is the single most obvious aspects of an organism’s phenotype. Cheetahs are adapted for running and capturing prey; monarch butterflies are brightly coloured to warn potential predators of their toxicity; etc. The theme of most nature films is the adaptation of organisms to their environment, and by implication the triumph of evolution by natural selection. Subterranean animals are different in this respect. The most obvious feature of many subterranean animals are losses, not adaptations. Even Darwin saw subterranean animals as degenerates: examples of eyelessness and loss of structure in general. For him, the explanation was a straightforward Lamarckian one, and one that did not involve adaptation and the struggle of existence.

This volume is the first comprehensive account of all known species. It includes an extensive introduction, history of investigations, consideration of non-stygobitic fishes in caves, and detailed analysis of the conservation status of these very rare animals.

Contents

• Cavefish: Retrospective and Prospective: Thomas L. Poulson
• Biodiversity and Distribution of the Subterranean Fishes of the World: Graham S. Proudlove
• Conservation of Subterranean Fishes: Maria Elina Bichuette and Eleonora Trajano
• Behavioral Patterns in Subterranean Fishes: Jakob Parzefall and Eleonora Trajano
• The Evolutionary Genetics of Cave Fishes: Convergence, Adaptation and Pleiotropy: Richard Borowsky
• Development as an Evolutionary Process in Astyanax Cavefishes: William R. Jeffery and Allen G. Strickler
• Subterranean Fishes of North America: Amblyopsidae: Matthew L. Niemiller and Thomas L. Poulson
• Subterranean Fishes of Mexico (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae): Martin Plath and Michael Tobler
• Subterranean Fishes of Brazil: Eleonora Trajano anxd Maria Elina Bichuette
• Subterranean Fishes of Africa: Roberto Berti and Giuseppe Messana
• Subterranean Fishes of China: Chen Zi-Ming, Luo Jing, Xiao Heng and Yang Jun-Xing
• Subterranean Fishes of India: Atanu Kumar Pati and Arti Parganiha


  
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