Troglomorphism

Troglomorphism is the morphological adaptation of an animal to living in the constant darkness of caves, characterised by features such as loss of pigment, reduced eyesight or blindness, and frequently with attenuated bodies or appendages.

[2] Troglomorphic species must adapt to unique elements of subterranean life, like continual darkness, reduced season queues, and limited food availability.

Additionally, as a result of poor resource availability, these species tend towards low rates of metabolism and activity, to maximize what little energy input they are able to achieve.

[2] Alternatively, lacking linkages in the genome might explain why some species are able to adapt to cave life without the loss of traits like eyes and pigment.

[2] Genera like the whip spider genus Paracharon point to the ability for species to remain mostly the same as their ancestral state, by taking to cave life.

Due to the relatively stable nature of caves, some species have been suggested to endure periods of climatic instability, like the Pleistocene, before readapting to surface life when conditions are favorable.

[10][11] In fact, many of these lineages show similar rates of speciation and diversity even within these smaller habitats, as uniquely specialized colonists of another environmental niche, rather than an evolutionary trap.