Northern brook lamprey (Ichthyomyzon fossor) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 9
Special Significance of the Species
Lampreys are the most ancestral living vertebrates and provide insight into the origins and evolution of vertebrates. Lampreys have been used extensively in laboratory studies on numerous subjects such as developmental biology and neurobiology (Moyle and Cech 2004).
Further study of the northern brook lamprey and its parasitic sister species, the silver lamprey, may provide insight into the evolution of alternate feeding strategies, and could lead to new ways of controlling introduced sea lamprey. Due to their sedentary nature, larval lampreys have been used as biomonitors of organochlorine contaminants in fresh water (Renaud et al. 1995, Renaud et al. 1999).
The filter-feeding northern brook lamprey larvae undoubtedly play a role in nutrient cycling in the streams that they inhabit.
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