Trematode Flatworm infections are
very common in freshwater Fish, but tend not to be well studied except in
instances where they also cause infections in Humans or domestic animals.
However in recent years it has been shown that these parasites can be very
useful in understanding the evolution of freshwater ecosystems, as they have a
much shorter generation time, and therefore evolve more rapidly, with different
populations becoming reproductively isolated much more quickly than their
hosts, which can provide insight into the movements of ancient waterways.
In a paper published in the
journal ZooKeys on 16 February 2015, Christian Bautista-Hernández, Scott Monks
and Griselda Pulido-Flores of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo and Rafael Miranda of the Department of Zoology and Ecology at the University of Navarra describe a new species of Trematode
Flatworm from two species of Poeciliid Fish (Tooth Carp) from the Río Malila a
tributary of the Río Conzintla in Hidalgo State, Mexico.
The new species is placed in the
genus Paracreptotrema and given the
specific name rosenthali, in honour
of Gil Rosenthal of the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. It
was found in the intestines of two species of Fish, Xiphophorus malinche (Highland Swordtail) and Pseudoxiphophorus
jonesii (Barred Killifish).
Ventral view of Paracreptotrema
rosenthali; arrows indicate fragments of
eyespot pigment. Bautista-Hernández et al. (2015).
Members of the genus Paracreptotrema have previously been
found in Poeciliid and Profundulid Fish in river basins in Central America, as far
north as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southeastern Mexico. The Río Malila
forms part of the Río Pánuco Basin, which is separated from these Fish
populations be the Mexican Plateau, suggesting the historic presence of a previously unknown connection between these waterways.
See also…
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