An eyeless, pigment-less fish that lives in southern Indiana caves has been identified as a new species.
The Hoosier cavefish live north of the Ohio. It was originally thought to be the same species as a cavefish living south of the Ohio River in Mammoth Cave, but the two fish actually have different DNA.
Louisiana State University professor Prosanta Chakrabarty described the animal in a study published this week in the journal ZooKeys. He says this kind of DNA discovery has never been seen in cavefish before.
“The one from Indiana, the new one, has a functional rhodopsin gene so it still makes the proteins and everything it needs for vision, but it’s not actually doing anything because there are no eyes,” Chakrabarty says.
The fish’s scientific name is Amblyopsis hoosieri, named in part by the University of Kentucky researcher who discovered the species, Matthew Niemiller. He’s also a native Hoosier.READ MORE
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