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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Dissection and Flat-mounting of the Threespine Stickleback Branchial Skeleton

Published on: May 7, 2016

Lateral line diversity among ecologically divergent threespine stickleback populations.

A R Wark¹, C L Peichel

¹Division of Human Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle WA 98109-1024, USA.

The Journal of Experimental Biology

|December 17, 2009

Summary

Fish lateral line systems vary in neuromast number across different habitats. This sensory system variation in threespine sticklebacks suggests adaptation to diverse aquatic environments.

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Area of Science:

* Evolutionary biology
* Sensory ecology
* Ichthyology

Background:

* The lateral line system is a crucial sensory organ in fish, detecting environmental stimuli like motion and objects.
* Morphological variations in the lateral line may enable fish to adapt to distinct habitats and associated ecological challenges.
* Threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) exhibit diverse habitat adaptations, suggesting potential variation in their sensory systems.

Purpose of the Study:

* To investigate potential variations in the morphology of the lateral line sensory system within the Gasterosteus aculeatus species complex.
* To examine how neuromast distribution, type, and number differ across various habitats (marine, stream, lake benthic, lake limnetic).

Main Methods:

* Sampling of 16 threespine stickleback populations from diverse aquatic environments.
* Analysis of the distribution, type, and number of neuromasts on different body regions.
* Comparative analysis of neuromast variation between populations from divergent habitats.

Main Results:

* Threespine sticklebacks possess a reduced lateral line canal system lacking canal neuromasts.
* Superficial neuromast arrangement is consistent, but neuromast numbers vary significantly among individuals, populations, and habitats.
* Stream sticklebacks had more neuromasts than marine populations; benthic sticklebacks had more trunk neuromasts than limnetic sticklebacks in lakes.

Conclusions:

* The lateral line sensory system shows significant variation within and among populations of a single species (Gasterosteus aculeatus).
* Habitat-specific selection pressures likely drive differences in neuromast number, indicating adaptive evolution of this sensory system.
* This study provides the first evidence of significant, adaptive variation in the fish lateral line system within a species.