Scientists believe that this rare catfish can only live in Mexico. Now in Texas, their footprints have also been found.
Scientists have found them in a deep cave in the city of Dexa-Strerio and identified them as an endangered species, the Mexican catfish, also known as prietella phreatophila.
No more than 91 cm long, the hagfish is known to survive only in the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer in the Grand River Basin in Texas and Ahuila.
The fish, found in Texas, further confirms the theory that a water-filled cave under the Rio Grande may have connected parts of the aquifer between Texas and Mexico.
"Since the 1960s, there have been many rumors about blind white catfish, but this is the first time it has been confirmed," said Professor Hendrickson, head of ichthyology at the University of Texas at Austin. "I've seen more of these things than anyone, and these specimens look like those eyeless catfish from Mexico."
Living in the dark
Jack Johnson, a cave explorer and head of resource management for the National Park Service, first spotted some slow-moving, pink, eyeless fish in April 2015. After several attempts to house the species, he and Peter Sprouse, a biologist at ZARA Environmental LLC, once again discovered the existence of the eyeless fish.
Mexican catfish are pale pink because their blood can be seen through translucent skin, and they live in groundwater.
"What's most fascinating about cavemen is that they've lost a lot of the features of the surface animals we know, such as eyes, coloring camouflage, and speed," Sprouse says. They have found a suitable niche where none of these things are necessary. In order to survive in the dark, they have developed additional sensory abilities. ”
The mexican catfish was first discovered in 1954 in the waters of Melchor Múzquiz, near the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. It was subsequently listed as an endangered species by the Mexican government and an endangered alien species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Although he had only gained in Mexico before, Hendrickson has worked hard over the years to find more locations for catfish in Mexico and Texas.
"The aquifer is like a system that sustains the survival of this rare species of fish and is the lifeblood of the human population. At the same time, it faces threats from pollution and over-exploitation of groundwater," Johnson said, "In Armisted, the health of this rare and endangered fish species can reflect the overall level of health and quality of the aquifer and the water resources on which people depend."
The discovery brought the number of species of catfish in the United States to three, and all of these species were found in Texas. The other two species of catfish found in Texas are the toothless catfish Trogloglanis pattersoni and the wide-billed catfish Satan eurystomus, both of which live in a complex of aquifers in Edwards Pool in San Antonio.
Tadpole Jun compiled from futurity, translated by Wynn, reprinted with permission
