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Images by Jon Beard.
Top left is southern cavefish (Typhlichthys subterraneus) quietly swimming
(you should hear
the noise they sometimes make) in a pool beyond the end of the River Cave
map.
Lower left is a southern cavefish and a mature larval grotto salamander (Eurycea
spelaeus)
in close proximity to each other. Perhaps already sexually mature,
the salamander is not
transformed into the adult form. Larvae still have red gills and
fins that adult forms do not have.
Already, though, the eyelids have fuxed shut and are atrophied, which
happens to all
grotto salamanders when they mature.
Right is Charity Gramm standing beside the Christmas Tree column in the
first large
room in River Cave. It is the only massive dripstone feature in the
cave.
Lower image is Charity Gramm posing atop large rimstone terrace which
originates
in longest side passage in River Cave. |