Cave divers Terrence Tysall, Jim Rozzi
and Thomas Iliffe (left to right) diving in a submarine lava tube cave in the
Canary Islands.
Tom Iliffe , a Texas A&M University
at Galveston professor of marnie biology, is seen here diving with a Megalodon
closed circuit rebreather in the Atlantida Tunnel, Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
Underwater caves such as this were the
focus of a National Science Foundation-supported expedition--"Survey of
Anchialine Cave Fauna of the Bahama Islands" (grant DEB 03-15903)--led by
Iliffe, a professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
Anchialine (a Greek word meaning
"near the sea") caves are coastal and form in limestone or volcanic
rock. They flood with seawater and include the longest submerged caves on
Earth. Many previously unknown species of higher taxa live in these caves. Most
do not have eyes or pigment since they live in perpetual darkness.
To learn more, see the Texas A&M
news story Texas A&M marine experts take discoveries to new underwater
heights; or visit Iliffe's website, Here. [Ref. Koenemann, S. M. Ziegler and
T.M. Iliffe (2008). Pleomothra fragilis n. sp. (Remipedia) from the Bahamas,
with remarks on morphologic reductions and postnaupliar development. Journal of
Crustacean Biology, 28(1):128-136.]
(Date of Images: March 2008)
Credit: Jill Heinerth
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