The brain of this bizarre amphibian offers clues about its evolution in total darkness.
Researchers recently scanned the heads of blind cave salamanders to learn how the species’ dark, aquatic environment shaped its senses. Using X-ray micro-computed tomography, they were able to map the internal layout of the olm’s cranial structures, including the brain, olfactory organs, ears, facial muscles, and the remnants of eyes. What they found was weird, even by salamander standards. is a slender, foot-long aquatic salamander native to southern Europe.
s. The larval and juvenile olm scans revealed remnant eyes, but the vestigial eyes and optic nerves of the adult specimen were likely too faint to appear in the scans. The olm’s olfactory cavities are elongated compared to the surface-dwelling axolotl’s, a sign that the blind salamander’s sense of smell improved as its sight declined.
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