2023-10-31 11:35:18
A century-old buffalo fish from Lake Apache, Arizona – UNIVERSITY OF MINESOTTA
MADRID, 31 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A recent study has discovered that some of the world’s oldest animals live in a lake in the Arizona desert, since some of them were born in 1918.
Researchers have found the second genus of animals of which three or more species have a known life expectancy of more than 100 years, which could open the doors to studies on aging in disciplines such as gerontology and senescence (aging) among vertebrates.
The study focuses on three species of fish from the genus Ictiobus, known as buffalo fish.
“There likely exists a treasure trove of information on aging, longevity and negligible senescence within the genus Ictiobus,” he said. it’s a statement the lead author of the research, Alec Lackmann, an icethiologist and professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “This study sheds light on this potential and opens the door to a future in which a more complete understanding of the vertebrate aging process can be achieved, including for humans. The research raises the question: What is the fountain of youth for buffalo fish? “
Lackmann has studied buffalo fish before, and his 2019 research even went so far as to extend the previously thought maximum age for largemouth buffalo from around 25 years to over 100 years by applying and validating a much more refined age calculation technique than had previously been used. Instead of examining the fish’s scales, “so-called otoliths, or ear stones, are removed from the inside of the fish’s skull, and then the stones are cut into thin sections to determine their age,” Lackmann said.
Approximately 97% of fish species have otoliths. They are small stone-like structures that grow throughout the fish’s life, forming a new layer each year. When properly processed, scientists like Lackmann can examine the otolith with a compound microscope and count the layers, like the rings of a treeand know the age of the fish.
Buffalo fish are native to central North America, including Minnesota, but those in this recent study were found in Lake Apache, a reservoir in the desert southwest. Originally bred in hatcheries and breeding ponds along the Mississippi River in the Midwest, buffalo fish were stocked by the government in Lake Roosevelt (upstream of Lake Apache), Arizona, in 1918. While Lake Roosevelt was commercially fished , Apache Lake fish populations remained largely intact until fishermen recently learned to catch buffalo fish consistently with rod and line.
When these catch-and-release conservationist fishermen They noticed unique orange and black spots on many of the fish they were catching, they wanted to learn more about the brands and found Lackmann’s previous research. An Arizona fisherman, Stuart Black, reached out and invited Lackmann to a fishing expedition on Lake Apache, where the fish collected would be donated to science.
By studying the fish collected at the fishing event and analyzing the age of their otoliths, Lackmann discovered that some of the buffalo fish from the 1918 Arizona population are probably still alive todayand that most of the buffalo fish in Lake Apache hatched in the early 1920s. More importantly, they discovered that the three different species of buffalo fish found in the lake were all over 100 years old. To their knowledge, such longevity in multiple species of freshwater fish is not found anywhere else in the world.
For Lackmann, there are exciting possibilities for the future study of this unique group of fish, with far-reaching implications.
“These long-lived fish species and individuals could be monitored so we can further study and understand their DNA, their physiology, their ability to fight infection and disease, and compare these systems across the age spectrum,” Lackmann said. . “The genus Ictiobus has the potential to be of great value in the field of gerontology, and Lake Apache could become an epicenter for a variety of scientific research in the future.”
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