Now this is something really cool I learnt today. At least for me, that I have a thing for strange animals and stuff.
So, you may have heard of the Olm, a snake-like, exclusively cave dwelling salamander found in Europe.
Now, being an exclusively cave dwelling creatures means that it comes with all kinds of weird traits. For example, it is one of the few amphibians that is entirely aquatic. And has an abnormally long life span, possibly over 100 years in the wild! And of course it just looks...weird:
Anyways, Wikipedia has a great page if you want to read more on it.
Now to the cool part. Olms only live in certain caves of Europe. But there is another salamander from Texas that looks almost the same, despite coming from a different family. And this one is exclusively cave dwelling as well.
Specimens have been collected at seven localities in the Purgatory Creek system and along the San Marcos Fault near San Marcos, Texas. Adults and immature larvae are well-adapted for living in underground streams in caves, and many probably inhabit deep recesses that are not accessible to collectors. source
Meet the Texas blind salamander, scientifically described as Eurycea rathbuni:
Public Domain, via Wikipedia
As you can see they look like two drops of water!
The main difference is that the Texas salamander has a less elongated body and sports 4 fingers on the forelimbs in comparison to the olm that has three.
Unfortunately, it appears like the the Texas blind salamander is critically endangered although the overall population seems stablish for now.
Here are a couple videos I found showing this cute little fella in action, enjoy:
Ok, hoped you enjoyed discovering yet another wonder of nature with me. Feel free to visit Wikipedia if you'd like to read more on it!
See you soon with more strange animals, in the meantime feel free to check the links below for similar to posts!
More Strange Animal Stuff
If you enjoyed this post here are some more amazing creatures I have recently blogged about:
