Academics

Aquatic environments can involve water that is rapidly flowing and highly turbulent or completely still–often a combination of both. For the animals that live in such environments, successfully navigating through water is key to survival. Most species of fish and other aquatic animals do this through the use of a unique sensory system: the lateral line. This system allows animals to detect water disturbances and pressure fluctuations (hydrodynamic stimuli) that occur at the surface of a body of water, such as an insect landing on it, or throughout it (Bleckmann & Zelick, 2009; Mogdans, 2018). The lateral line system is composed of neuromasts, with superficial and canal variations, that allow fish to receive this hydrodynamic sensory input imperative to their survival (Bleckmann & Zelick, 2009). These neuromasts are the receptive sensory structures located along the head, trunk, and tail fins of fish (Bleckmann & Zelick, 2009; Mogdans, 2018). 

Superficial neuromasts are located on the surface of the skin and are primarily responsible for detecting velocity. In contrast, canal neuromasts are found within small canal pores and function as detectors of water acceleration by responding to differences in the pressure gradients between adjacent canal pores (Mogdans, 2018). Previous research has shown that both neuromast types vary across and within species, as well as across an individual organism’s lifetime. For instance, eight species of Forsterygion display different numbers and groupings of neuromasts with distinct lateral line traits unique to each species, despite being closely related (Nakae et al., 2012). 

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