The Mammoth Cave and Its Inhabitants, Or Descriptions of the Fishes, Insects and Crustaceans Found in the CaveNaturalists' agency, 1872 - 62 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Adelops adult Agassiz Amblyopsis Amblyopsis and Typhlichthys Amer AMERICAN NATURALIST anal fins Anophthalmus antennæ belonging blind fish body brackish water brain caudal fin cave animals cave insects cavity cells characters color COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY Cope crustacean Cyprinodontes darkness DeKay developed eyes dorsal eggs exist F. W. PUTNAM fact figure filaments fish with eyes fresh water genera genus Girard Günther habits head Heteropygii inches in length inhabit intermaxillaries lancelet lens limestone magnified Mammoth Cave maxillary membrane minnows MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE nearest allies nearly Niphargus operculum optic lobes optic nerve otolite ovary palatine papillæ papillary ridges Pectoral pigment PLATE Poey portion present probably Prof Pseudotremia pyloric appendages remarkable represented rocks scales Schiödte side single ovary skin species Spirostrephon Steindachner stomach and pyloric subter subterranean fauna subterranean streams surface tactile organs teeth Tellkampf ventral fins viviparous wingless Wyandotte Cave Wyman young
Popular passages
Page 36 - If these Amblyopses be not alarmed, they come to the surface to feed, and swim in full sight like white aquatic ghosts. They are then easily taken by the hand or net, if perfect silence is preserved, for they are unconscious of the presence of an enemy except through the medium of hearing. This sense is, however, evidently very acute, for at any noise they turn suddenly downward and hide beneath stones, etc., on the bottom.
Page 36 - ... on the bottom. They must take much of their food near the surface, as the life of the depths is apparently very sparse. This habit is rendered easy by the structure of the fish, for the mouth is directed partly upwards, and the head is very flat above, thus allowing the mouth to be at the surface.
Page 60 - Three genera and four species are " all of the family yet known, but that others will be discovered, and the range of the present known species extended, is very probable. The ditches and small streams of the lowlands of our southern coast will undoubtedly be found to be the home of numerous individuals, and perhaps of new species and genera, while the subterranean streams of the central portion of our country most likely contain other species.
Page 24 - By the time that an animal had reached, after numberless generations, the deepest recesses, disuse will on this view have more or less perfectly obliterated its eyes, and natural selection will often have effected other changes, such as an increase in the length of the antennae or palpi, as a compensation for blindness.
Page 29 - ... collapsed in one, in the other so closely as to give a tripodal section. Here we have an interesting transitional condition in one and the same animal, with regard to a peculiarity which has at the same time physiological and systematic significance. and is one of the comparatively few cases where the physiological appropriateness of a generic modification can be demonstrated. It is therefore not subject to the difficulty under which the advocates of natural selection labor, when necessitated...
Page 40 - It certainly is not adapted to the formation of images, since the common integument and the areolar tissue which are interposed between it and the surface, would prevent the transmission of light to it except in a diffused condition. No pupil or anything analogous to an iris was detected, unless we regard as representing the latter the increased number of pigment cells at the anterior part of the globe. It is said that the blind fishes are acutely sensitive to sounds as well as to undulations produced...
Page 29 - We quote the following from Prof. Cope's remarks on the fish : * — "Two specimens of this fish present an interesting condition of the rudimental eyes. On the left side of both a small perforation exists in the coriuin, which is closed by the epidermis, representing a rudimental cornea: on the other the corium is complete.
Page 59 - Pectoral fins pointed, reaching to line of commencement of dorsal. Caudal fin pointed, about equal in length to the head. Membrane above and below extending but slightly on the tail. Scales very small and deeply imbedded in the skin. Circular with small smooth space forward of the centre. From 15 to 20 concentric rings, cut by a few short radiating furrows on anterior, and longer and more numerous ones on posterior margin. Intestine is a little longer than in an Amblyopsis of the same size. common...
Page 32 - Miiller, and to state that they can be detected in some specimens as black spots under the skin by means of a powerful lens. Prof. Wyman afterwards detected the eye through the skin in several specimens. Dr. Tellkampf also was the first to call attention to the " folds on the head, as undoubtedly serving as organs of touch, as numerous fine nerves lead from the trigeminal nerve to them and to the skin of the head generally.
Page 22 - ... ground. It is rather soft but hardens on exposure to the air. The question then remains so far unanswered as to whether a submergence occurred subsequent to the development of the postpliocene mammalian fauna. That some important change took place is rendered probable by the fact, that nearly all the neotropical types of the animals have been banished from our territory, and the greater part of the species of all types have become extinct. Two facts have come under my observation which indicate...