#NewSpecies!
New blind fish from #indonesia just swam in:

Barbodes klapanunggalensis

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/496E3FA0-FAC9-534C-A265-2A80715B7F91
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1229.135950
#Zoosyst_Evo #BarbodesKlapanunggalensis

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fish #TeamFish #fishofmastodon #fishfriday #ichthyology #blindfishs #blind #caves #cavebiology

Underground views...

Sea Caves on the beach at Pismo Beach, California

LA Times (Lifestyle): "‘My next home must be fireproof’: Why more Angelenos are looking to build ‘SuperAdobes" https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2025-02-20/superadobe-calearth-hesperia-fire-resistant-los-angeles #architecture #adobe #caves #wildfires

Happy Valentine's Day from a gypsum heart in a cave.

Speaking of hearts, let's have some Real Talk! About hearts! Today I re-certified in CPR & First Aid. Did you know that socialized as female folk are far more likely to die from a heart attack / cardiac event than men? It's true! A large cause of this is due to the fact that symptoms are often not as-seen-on-TV; instead being brushed off as nausea, acid reflux, or indigestion. And what do we do when we feel ick? We go to the bathroom. So when we collapse, no one is around to see, much less administer CPR. So: check on your friends who disappear to the bathroom for a long time!

Sadly, there is also a huge disparity between races in survival as well. Not only does lack of medical access and environment & social factors mean there is higher risk (systematic racism), but overt racism also prevents bystanders from stepping in to help. Black & Latinx people suffer the most. (https://newsroom.heart.org/news/cardiovascular-health-risks-continue-to-grow-within-black-communities-action-needed)

CPR is not that difficult! It is more the mental challenge of being prepared to step in and help. If you can't get to a class (hands on with the training manikins is certainly recommended if you can!) still learn about it. All 50 states have Good Samaritan laws.

I personally know two people who are alive thanks to a normal everyday person knowing CPR, and intervening. This is community building, y'all! Take care of each other out there.

Some additional tips:
1. If someone has a medical emergency and you end up leading the way, always point and directly tell people what to do (ex: you in the blue shirt *pointing at them* call 911). If you just shout things, people will not jump into action. Be specific & direct.

2. Always check for a pulse on the same side you are kneeling on, you don't want to reach across their neck.

3. If there are enough people, direct folk not involved in helping to form a circle looking *out*. This gives some privacy, very important in these days of cell phone cameras and the fact that say, once the AED shows up, their chest will be made bare. Help protect the patient's privacy!

4. Good Samaritan laws generally have caveats such as never accept anything as a thank you (not even flowers, *nothing*) and stay with the person until someone of equal or greater training arrives. So if you say, start CPR then just get tired and stop with no one equal or higher taking over, then you are liable.

No big deal, just out here finding new locales and new species all the time...but sure, fuck over our funding. If we don't know they exist we don't have to worry about protecting them, duuuuuh.

(This pseudoscorpion today was quite the surprise! Identification TBD.)

Black Adventure Crew goes caving! Good start for #BlackHistoryMonth - making new memories :)

I approached this group about caving what now feels like a lifetime ago...an outdoor group focused on getting Black and Brown people outside into nature. They were interested in trying it, and now they do trips every year.

While it sucks that DEI is getting canned federally and in some states (why trying to equally include everyone is a bad thing I'll never understand), that doesn't mean we as individuals can't pick up the slack. There are so many stories from folk who say their white friends just never ask them to join for xyz activity...so check yourself. Ask your friends to join you. If you don't have diverse friendships, ask yourself why that is.

Newly discovered fungal species makes zombies of cave spiders on island of Ireland https://phys.org/news/2025-01-newly-fungal-species-zombies-cave.html paper: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wfbi/fuse/pre-prints/content-f1_fuse_vol15_art7

"all the infected #spiders were positioned on the roof or walls of the #caves. These normally reclusive spiders left their lairs or webs and migrated to die in exposed situations, essentially, mirroring the behavior of ants infected by #fungi of the genus Ophiocordyceps previously reported from the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil."

Well since I could use some money now, the whole scientist-without-funding-now thing thanks to stupid executive orders, I got out my prints I have from back when I did art shows and maybe people will...buy some? :) I can sign them if you like. I can also drop ship prints of any of my photography, just DM to ask! It would be nice if I could at least make a couple hundred as my dog had another seizure and I have bills to pay.

To not "spam" ya'll I am going to post each as a reply to this. So, you can just mute this thread if you don't want to see.

Please reply with DM on the photo you'd like to purchase, I can send an invoice to pay. Shipping will be about $10 within the US, $20-$50 for outside the US.

Well, word from today's lab meeting is thanks to the executive orders being issued, two of our projects for this year (working with NPS and National Forests) are now on indefinite hold. Grants were awarded, funding set, but it's all walked back now. This is how far these EO's are already reaching via "trickle-down effect" just four days in. We always figured we would get caught up in it; how swiftly it has happened is a bit shocking.

All we do is study caves and wildlife. Something that is generally very bipartisan - protection of and access to wild spaces. Feel free to use this as a talking point with those you know. You are more likely to sway people with common ground basis, than with arguing facts.

Beautiful cave with waterfall and incredible moss on our walk yesterday in Yugambeh Country #mosstodon #Australia #Springbrook #moss #caves

Would you like to know how #LabPlot, an open-source data analysis and visualization software, makes it easier to uncover the mysteries of #caves?

Then read this interesting article by Bill Gee:

https://www.mocavesandkarst.org/2023-stream-flow-project-report/

All images courtesy of Bill.

Boosts appreciated!

Interested in spiders? Me too! While I am not on this paper, it is some of our lab's work in conjunction with a few others.
Open Access https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/135200/

"Remarkably low genetic diversity in the widespread cave spider Phanetta subterranea (Araneae, Linyphiidae)"

Why is this interesting? Because usually karst species are pretty distinct, with defined ranges by geologic features and hydrology, and very limited methods of dispersal. In fact, in our region and neighboring, 31% (218/710) of troglobionts are known from just a single cave! Only *9* out of the 710 species are found in 30 or more counties. So to find that this spider has such low genetic diversity (and most definitely all the same species) across such a HUGE range - 40 caves in 37 counties across seven states - is unique and quite the outlier!

Archaeoethnologica: Cannibalism, Fear and War in Bronze Age / Canibalismo, Terror e Guerra na Idade do Bronze

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2024/12/canibalismo-terror-e-guerra-na-idade-do.html

Archaeoethnologica: Cannibalism, Fear and War in Bronze Age / Canibalismo, Terror e Guerra na Idade do Bronze

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2024/12/canibalismo-terror-e-guerra-na-idade-do.html

#Karstmas day 16

Traditionally on this day in years past I enjoyed going to this cave, a lovely almost 300 foot rappel next to a waterfall. Easy rig. Fun cave. I hung over the edge with a tripod to take this photo from the top looking down, a lone figure on rope and a light shinning up from the depths below.

(PS - I hope you all have been enjoying Karstmas! However I am unlikely to be able to post for the next few days due to situation beyond my control. I hope you stay tuned! Follow me or the Karstmas hashtag to not miss anything when I'm able to be back!)

Let's try to do a Countdown to Karstmas! Every day I will post one of my cave photography images. If you'd like to enjoy them along with me, follow me or at least follow #karstmas which I just made up and will be using.

To start off I'll share this photo of Sótano de las Golondrinas, often referred to as simply Golondrinas, which is a very deep pit in Aquismón (Mexico). The rappel is 1200 feet (365 m), straight down. No breaks, just one long rope. It was, at least at the time I did it, the deepest cave single pitch rappel in the world. I think it still holds that record - there are deeper, but not that can be done as a single rope, straight down, no rebelays or deviations.

This image of mine has been *widely* stolen and used, usually by travel companies. They are screenshot images of my work, with my watermark cropped out. You have probably seen this image if you were ever on Facebook, it makes the rounds almost annually on "best of" type pages. Despite it's popularity, I've barely made any money off of this, but others certainly have!

(Boosts welcome!)

Astronauts of the underworld : Cave explorers.

Link : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241029-the-caving-scientists-exploring-the-darkest-places-on-earth