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Texas Blind Salamander — printable fact sheet
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Texas Blind Salamander
Eurycea rathbuni
The Texas blind salamander (Eurycea rathbuni) lives in the water-filled caves and conduits of the Edwards Aquifer beneath San Marcos, Texas, and it has never needed to see. It has no functional eyes at all, only two dark spots buried beneath the skin, and no pigment, so it is a …
Did you know?
- Despite living its whole life in total darkness, the Texas Blind Salamander can sense subtle water movements to find prey such as small crustaceans and snails.
- It has no eyes, only two dark specks under the skin, and no pigment at all. It never metamorphoses, keeping its feathery larval gills into adulthood and never leaving the water. It hunts by sensing the pressure waves that prey make, sweeping its head from side to side in the dark. Its entire world is a handful of caves and wells under one Texan city, and its survival depends on the level and cleanliness of the aquifer beneath it.
What I learned
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