Is There a Lost Species?

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The last time anyone saw a live blanco blind salamander, it was near a natural spring that connects to a huge underground world of watery caverns and lakes. The edwards oquifer is one of the most biodiverse oquifers in the world, right in the middle of texas. There are blind catfish, countless tiny invertebrates, a lot of creatures which never needed to evolve eyes in the perpetual darkness. But despite how huge this Oquifer is, most of it is pretty hard to access - especially when moving through swiss cheese-sized sediment layers. And we think there may be an even bigger question: How do species go missing?

One of the world’s most biodiverse aquifers is full of strange, blind creatures that have evolved in isolation for millions of years. But one is missing.

This episode was reported by Benji Jones and Mandy Nguyen, who produced the episode. Editing from Meradith Hoddinott, Katherine Wells, Brian Resnick, and Noam Hassenfeld, who scored the episode. Mixing and sound design from Cristian Ayala. Fact-checking from Richard Sima.

For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable

It’s a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics on our show.

Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com

We read every email.

Support Unexplainable by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices