A team of researchers from the University at Hólar, North Iceland, are currently studying a special species of Arctic char found in a number of caves dotted around the Mývatn region. The species is called ‘hellableikja’ in Icelandic, or ‘cave char’.
The project began in 2013 and its aim is to understand the characteristics and development of these individual groups. Scientists from Switzerland, France, Canada, Iran, and the US partake in the study. According to Dr. Bjarni K. Kristjánsson, who leads the investigation, around 50 to 500 fish are found in every cave and each individual group has evolved into a distinctive species.
“These fish are stuck in a rather hopeless situation. Thousands of years ago they moved freely through an underground cave system but when these passages closed off, the fish were trapped and had to adapt in order to survive,” Bjarni told Morgunblaðið’s reporter.
The study offers a glimpse of how species evolve in a rather short amount of time, in this case “only two thousand years”.
A team of researchers from the University at Hólar, North Iceland, are currently studying a special species of Arctic char found in a number of caves dotted around the Mývatn region. The species is called ‘hellableikja’ in Icelandic, or ‘cave char’.
The project began in 2013 and its aim is to understand the characteristics and development of these individual groups. Scientists from Switzerland, France, Canada, Iran, and the US partake in the study. According to Dr. Bjarni K. Kristjánsson, who leads the investigation, around 50 to 500 fish are found in every cave and each individual group has evolved into a distinctive species.
“These fish are stuck in a rather hopeless situation. Thousands of years ago they moved freely through an underground cave system but when these passages closed off, the fish were trapped and had to adapt in order to survive,” Bjarni told Morgunblaðið’s reporter.
The study offers a glimpse of how species evolve in a rather short amount of time, in this case “only two thousand years”.
