Scientists discover new eyeless demon cavefish in Alabama cave beneath Army base

Researchers were left stunned when they discovered a new “demon cavefish” in a highly-studied cave beneath a US Army post in Alabama.Scientists from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) uncovered a new genus of cavefish that is eyeless, colorless and faintly electric blue in life, according to a UAH press release from July.

 The new genus, formally known as Demogorgonichthys arcanus, but aptly dubbed “demon cavefish,” was discovered in Bobcat Cave — under the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.Demogorgonichthys references the mythological underworld figure “Demogorgon” known through the game “Dungeons & Dragons” and the Netflix show “Stranger Things” — while arcanus means “hidden” or “secret,” according to UAH.Combined, the scientific name reflects the cryptic species’ underground habitat and decades-long concealment in the cave system. “This is one of the last places we’d have bet on it,” the study’s lead author Dr.

Matthew L.Niemiller said. “Finding an entirely unknown, new genus of freshwater fish in eastern North America today is a little like finding a new kind of big cat,” he quipped. “The group is so well known, we thought the big surprises were behind us.”The UAH researchers, as part of the University of Alabama System, published their findings in Scientific Reports in July in collaboration with researchers from three other regional universities.Shockingly, the pool in which the “demon cavefish” was discovered, is home to “Southern Cavefish” — yet the two species are not close relatives. “This is the part I find most remarkable,” Niemiller says, adding that the two species “found its own separate way into the underground world and lost its eyes and pigment independently, millions of years apart.”“It’s a vivid case of convergent evolution,” he said.The Bobcat Cave system has been monitored “at least quarterly” for over 30 years.“To have one turn up in...