Cave salamander

Some of these animals have developed special, even extreme, adaptations to their subterranean environments.

Others lack pigmentation, rendering them a pale yellowish or pinkish color (e.g., Eurycea rathbuni).

It was originally identified as a "dragon's larva" by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor in 1689.

[3][4] Another early scientific description of a cave salamander was undertaken by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1822 while he was a professor of botany and natural history at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

His discovery was not surprising at the time because E. lucifuga lives near the entrance of caves, making an in-depth exploration unnecessary.