Ecology

Communication

Neuroscience

Biology

Foraging

Fish <Actinopterygii>

Agonistic behaviour

Fishery

Psychiatry

Sound (geography)

Acoustics

Evolutionary biology

Cave

Physics

Psychology

Sound production

Animal communication

Adaptation (eye)

Aggression

Nature Communications

Acoustic communication allows the exchange of information within specific contexts and during specific behaviors. The blind, cave-adapted and the sighted, river-dwelling morphs of the species Astyanax mexicanus have evolved in markedly different environments. During their evolution in darkness, cavefish underwent a series of morphological, physiological and behavioral changes, allowing the study of adaptation to drastic environmental change. Here we discover that Astyanax is a sonic species, in the laboratory and in the wild, with sound production depending on the social contexts and the type of morph. We characterize one sound, the “Sharp Click”, as a visually-triggered sound produced by dominant surface fish during agonistic behaviors and as a chemosensory-, food odor-triggered sound produced by cavefish during foraging. Sharp Clicks also elicit different reactions in the two morphs in play-back experiments. Our results demonstrate that acoustic communication does exist and has evolved in cavefish, accompanying the evolution of its behaviors.

Evolution of acoustic communication in blind cavefish