SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
by Jim Steele, University of Alabama in Huntsville
You'd think there'd be no way someone could
newly discover an endangered species hanging out in Fern Cave in the Paint Rock
River valley of Jackson County, so close to Huntsville, home to thousands of
spelunkers exploring every cave, nook and cranny.
But Matthew Niemiller and colleagues did.
In a discovery documented in a paper in the
journal Subterranean Biology, Dr. Niemiller, an assistant professor of
biological sciences at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), found a
specimen of the Alabama Cave Shrimp Palaemonias alabamae while doing
a biological survey of Fern Cave in summer 2018 as part of a team of four.
The endangered shrimp had previously only
been discovered in six caves in four cave systems in Madison County.
"Fern Cave is the longest cave in
Alabama, with at least 15 miles of mapped passage and five to seven distinct
levels," Dr. Niemiller says. The cave features a 437-foot deep pit and
exploring most of its lower levels is reserved only for the very fittest, since
the trip involves an arduous journey including drops to be rappelled.
Dr. Niemiller and team's route to their
discovery was no easy feat, either. The team entered the cave's bottom level
via the Davidson Entrance at the base of Nat Mountain on the Fern Cave National
Wildlife Refuge. The section of Fern Cave is only dry enough for exploration
without scuba gear at the height of summer. Otherwise, it takes a dive to
explore its flooded passages.
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