Discovery of Endangered Mexican Blindcat, Prietella phreatophila, in Texas: Implications for International Groundwater Management and Evolution of the Regional Karst Aquifer Biota

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dc.creatorHendrickson, Dean A.
dc.creatorHernández-Espriú, Antonio
dc.creatorDugan, Laura
dc.creatorSprouse, Peter
dc.creatorDávila Paulín, José Antonio
dc.creatorKrejca, Jean
dc.creatorGluesenkamp, Andrew
dc.creatorReddell, James
dc.creatorSmith, Ryan
dc.creatorHoward, Sarah
dc.creatorJohnson, Jack
dc.creatorGarrett, Gary P.
dc.creatorCohen, Adam E.
dc.creatorGarcía De León, Francisco J.
dc.creatorWolaver, Brad
dc.creatorFenolio, Dante B.
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-02T13:13:32Z
dc.date.available2017-10-02T13:13:32Z
dc.date.issued2017-07-15
dc.descriptionPaper presented July 15, 2017 at the annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Austin, Texas, USA (http://conferences.k-state.edu/JMIH-Austin-2017/). The oral presentation of this content mentioned questions about the taxonomy and phylogenetic position of Prietella lundbergi and the only specimens attributed to P. lundbergi apart from the holotype. Since the presentation, we obtained high resolution CT scans of both the holotype and a specimen (TNHC 25767) from Cueva del Nacimiento del Río Frio, not far north of the type locality. The anatomy revealed in those CT scans suggests that these specimens represent a single species, and that P. lundbergi is only remotely related to Prietella phreatophila, which would be consistent with results of Wilcox, T.P., F.J. Garcı́a de León, Dean A. Hendrickson, and D.M. Hillis. 2004. “Convergence among Cave Catfishes: Long-Branch Attraction and a Bayesian Relative Rates Test.” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31 (3): 1101–13. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.11.006). Thus, further research is in progress by Hendrickson, Lundberg, Luckenbill and Arce that may result in taxonomic revision removing P. lundbergi from Prietella.en_US
dc.description.abstractMexican blindcat, Prietella phreatophila, described in 1954 from a cave system near the town of Múzquiz in central Coahuila state, and considered a Mexican endemic, was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a foreign endangered species (protected "wherever found") in 1970. Explorations in the 1990s discovered many new localities extending nearly to the international border, and in 2016 the species was discovered in Amistad National Recreation Area (ANRA) in Texas, just north of the international border near Del Rio. Not only does the discovery support the aquifer of this fish being an internationally shared resource, but the stygobitic invertebrate biota found with the fish indicates a potentially large extent of the aquifer, and thus possibly the fish, in Texas. Invertebrate faunal connections (historic or current) extend from the Amistad Lake area of the new occurrence west into the Trans-Pecos region and east into the Edwards Aquifer of central Texas. We explore implications of this for both water management and evolutionary history of this and other blind ictalurids, and suggest that population genetic studies of both stygobitic fishes and invertebrates could help hydrogeologists better define often difficult to map aquifer extents and interconnections. While NPS is continuing to support the cave explorations of ANRA that produced the Texas discovery, we propose a broader bi-national sampling effort for both the fish and invertebrates extending well beyond the current known distribution of P. phreatophila. We also pointed out questions about phylogenetic relatedness of P. phreatophila and P. lundbergi further south, as well as the possibility of a monophyletic clade of blindcats, including those of the Edwards Aquifer, Satan and Trogloglanis. If substantiated, that evolutionary history would imply broader historic inter-aquifer connections ranging from the San Antonio area as far south as southernmost Tamaulipas. Finally, we report establishment of a small captive population of Prietella phreatophila at San Antonio Zoo for research and possibly eventual conservation applications.en_US
dc.description.departmentIntegrative Biologyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. National Park Service; San Antonio Zoo; University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences and Department of Integrative Biologyen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.15781/T2K931N9V
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/61886
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.relation.ispartofUT Faculty/Researcher Worksen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.restrictionOpenen_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectPrietella phreatophilaen_US
dc.subjectSatan eurystomusen_US
dc.subjectTrogloglanis pattersonien_US
dc.subjectPrietella lundbergien_US
dc.subjectLirceolus cocytusen_US
dc.subjectMexistenasellus coahuilaen_US
dc.subjectCirolanides texensisen_US
dc.subjectconservation statusen_US
dc.subjectTexasen_US
dc.subjectCoahuilaen_US
dc.subjectTamaulipasen_US
dc.subjectendangered speciesen_US
dc.subjectHydrologyen_US
dc.subjectFreshwater Ecologyen_US
dc.subjectSiluriformesen_US
dc.subjectIctaluridaeen_US
dc.subjectIsopodaen_US
dc.subjectWidemouth Blindcaten_US
dc.subjectToothless Blindcaten_US
dc.subjectMexican Blindcaten_US
dc.subjectPhantom Blindcaten_US
dc.subjectBorder Cave Isopoden_US
dc.subjectkarst aquifersen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AREAS::Water in nature and societyen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Biology::Terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecology::Freshwater ecologyen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Earth sciences::Atmosphere and hydrosphere sciences::Hydrologyen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Biology::Organism biology::Systematics and phylogeneticsen_US
dc.subjectinternational shared aquifersen_US
dc.subjectJMIH 2017en_US
dc.titleDiscovery of Endangered Mexican Blindcat, Prietella phreatophila, in Texas: Implications for International Groundwater Management and Evolution of the Regional Karst Aquifer Biotaen_US
dc.typeConference paperen_US

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