The blind cave eel (Ophisternon candidum) is a species of fish in the Synbranchidae family. It is endemic to subterranean waters in the Cape Range, Australia. Like other cave adapted animals such as Milyeringa (the only other vertebrates restricted to subterranean waters in Australia), the blind cave eel is entirely blind and lacks pigmentation. It is listed as vulnerable under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Reaching a length of 40 cm (16 in), it is the longest known cavefish.
Famous quotes containing the words blind and/or cave:
“But a blind man’s cane poking, however clumsily, into the inmost corners of the house.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The human mind is indeed a cave swarming with strange forms of life, most of them unconscious and unilluminated. Unless we can understand something as to how the motives that issue from this obscurity are generated, we can hardly hope to foresee or control them.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)