Biodiversity Blog

Monday, 05 July 2021

Saving the Guadalupe fescue

 Guadalupe fescue. (Photo: Carolyn Whiting) West Texas is known for arid landscapes reminiscent of old Western movies rather than cool damp mountains 6000 feet in altitude. But this is what areas of the Chisos Mountains are like, and where UT researchers have been surveying a rare grass, the Guadalupe fescue (Festuca ligulata). While once s...

Wednesday, 23 September 2020

IB Researchers to Lead Three-Year Groundwater Salamander Survey

 Undescribed species from New Braunfels. (Photo: Tom Devitt) Pale-skinned predators swimming about in dark underground caves sounds like something from a horror film, but they do exist. The reality is probably much less frightening once you know these creatures are groundwater salamanders of the Eurycea genus. Members of David Hillis’ lab i...

Tuesday, 29 October 2019

Creatures of Halloween: Widemouth Blindcat (Satan eurystomus)

By Dean Hendrickson (Curator, Ichthyology Collection) and Nicole Elmer    Satan eurystomus (Photo: Garold Sneegas) In our last Halloween posting, the scorpionfly donned orange, black, and yellow. The species in this blog’s focus is pale and pink. This is Satan eurystomus, also known as the Widemouth Blindcat, a cave catfish, known...