Northern Cavefish
Amblyopsis spelaea DeKay, 1842

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class

Stygobiont

Realm

Aquatic

Troglomorphy

Troglomorphic

Maximum length

90 mm

Distribution

Type locality

River Styx, Mammoth Cave, Edmonson Co., KY

Range

Known from eight counties in Kentucky in the Interior Low Plateau karst region.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Kentucky

Counties

Kentucky

Breckenridge, Breckinridge, Edmonson, Hardin, Hart, Henderson, Meade, Warren

Karst regions

Interior Low Plateau

Genetics

Molecular resources

384 sequences, retrieved 23 August 2026. Counts change as sequences are deposited. Search GenBank.

Download all 384 sequence records (CSV) Accession, marker, molecule type, length, GenBank definition and a direct link.

Nuclear genome

Available

Specimens

Type material

Type

YPM ICH 025294.001 · Yale Peabody Museum

Collections holding material

93 cataloged lots in 28 collections. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 93 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

IUCN Red List

NT Near Threatened na

Assessed in 2012.

NatureServe

G2G3 Imperiled to Vulnerable

Global rank last reviewed 5 July 2017.

Subnational ranks

Kentucky

S3 Vulnerable

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Threats

• Dams & Water Extraction
• Pollution -Sewage or Urban Wastewater
• Pollution - Commercial/Industrial
• Pollution - Agricultural & Forestry

Other resources

Catalogue of Life

CMRC

GBIF

5212776

ITIS

164395

iNaturalist

93829

NCBI Taxonomy

1195602

References

• Adams, G.L., Burr, B.M. & Warren, Jr., M.L. 2020. Chapter 21. Amblyopsidae: cavefishes. In: Warren, Jr., M.L & Burr, B.M. (eds), Freshwater Fishes of North America. Volume 2. Characidae to Poeciliidae, pp. 281–321. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
• Agassiz, L. 1853. Recent reseacher of Prof. Agassiz. The American Journal of Science 16: 134–136.
• Bailey, V. 1933. Cave Life of Kentucky. US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, DC, USA. 256 pp.
• Banta, A.M. 1907. The fauna of Mayfield's Cave. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 67: 1–114. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/60987. details
• Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1962. The cavefish, Amblyopsis spelaea, in northern Kentucky. Copeia 1962: 662. doi:10.2307/1441209
• Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1971. Ecological studies in the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky. II. The Ecosystem. Annales de Speleologie 26: 47–96. doi:10.5038/1827-806X.3.1.10
• Burr, B.M., Warren & M.L. Jr. 1986. A distributional atlas of Kentucky fishes. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 398 pp.
• Cooper, J.E. 1975. Ecological and behavioral studies in Shelta Cave, Alabama, with emphasis on decapod crustaceans. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA. 364 pp.
• Cooper, J.E. & Cooper, M.R. 2011. Observations on the biology of the endangered stygobiotic shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, with notes on P. ganteri (Decapoda: Atyidae). Subterranean Biology 8: 9–20.
• Cox, U.O. 1905. A revision of the cave fishes of North America. Appendix to the Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for the Year Ending June 30, 1904. Bureau of Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, DC, USA. 377–393.
• DeKay, J.E. 1842. Zoology of New York; or, The New York Fauna; comprising detailed descriptions of all the animals hitherto observed within the state of New York, with brief notices of those occasionally found near its borders, and accompanied by appropriate illustrations. Park IV. Fishes. W. & A. White & J. Visscher, Albany, New York, USA. 415 pp. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2010003. details
• Eigenmann, C.H. 1897. The Amblyopsidae, the blind fish of America. Report of the British Association for the Advacement of Science 1897: 685–686. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/30118215. details
• Eigenmann, C.H. 1898b. The Amblyopsidae and eyes of blind fishes [abstract]. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 1897: 230–231. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14629164. details
• Eigenmann, C.H. 1899a. Explorations in the caves of Missouri and Kentucky. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 1899: 58–61. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14629276. details
• Giovannoli, L. 1933. Invertebrate life of Mammoth and other neighboring caves. In: Bailey, V. (ed), Cave Life of Kentucky, pp. 600–623.
• Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1980. Caves and associated fauna of the Western Kentucky coal field, Volume 2. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 114 pp.
• Hart, P.B., Niemiller, M.L., Armbruster, J.W. & Chakrabarty, P. 2024. Conservation implications for the world’s most widely distributed cavefish species complex based on population genomics (Typhlichthys, Percopsiformes). Conservation Genetics 25: 165–177. doi:10.1007/s10592-023-01562-x
• Hart, P.B., Rincon-Sandoval, M., Melendez-Vazquex, F., Armbruster, J.W., Troyer, E.M., Bierstein, O.M., Gough, B.J., Betancur-R, R., Niemiller, M.L. & Arcila, D. 2025. Ancient climate changes and relaxed selection shape cave colonization in North American cavefishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 292: 20242516. doi:10.1098/rspb.2024.2516
• Hay, W.P. 1902b. Observations on the crustacean fauna of the region about Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 25: 223–236. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.25-1285.223
• Lewis, J.J. 1988. The systematics, zoogeography and life history of the troglobitic isopods of the Interior Plateaus of the eastern United States. University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. 281 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2002k. Conservation assessment for Northern Cavefish (Amblyopsis spelaea). U.S. Forest Service, Eastern Region, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 10 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2005. Inventory of the subterranean fauna of Tims Ford State Park, Franklin County, Tennessee. Tennesee Natural Heritage Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 28 pp.
• Nicholas, G. 1960. Checklist of macroscopic troglobitic organisms of the United States. The American Midland Naturalist 64: 123–160. doi:10.2307/2422897
• Niemiller, M.L., Fitzpatrick, B.M., Shah, P., Schmitz, L. & Near, T.J. 2013d. Evidence for repeated loss of selective constraint in rhodopsin of amblyopsid cavefishes (Teleostei: Amblyopsidae). Evolution 67: 732–748. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01822.x
• Niemiller, M.L., Higgs, D.M. & Soares, D. 2013c. Evidence for hearing loss in amblyopsid cavefishes. Biology Letters 9: 20130104. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0104
• Niemiller, M.L., McCandless, J.R., Reynolds, R.G., Caddle, J., Near, T.J., Tillquist, C.R., Pearson, W.D. & Fitzpatrick, B.M. 2013b. Effects of climatic and geological processes during the Pleistocene on the evolutionary history of the northern cavefish, Amblyopsis spelaea (Teleostei: Amblyopsidae). Evolution 67: 1011–1025. doi:10.1111/evo.12017
• Orr, J.M. 1934. Studies on a cave fish of uncertain classification. Western Kentucky State College, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. 29 pp. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1795/. details
• Pearson, W.D. & Boston, C.H., Jr. 1995. Distribution and status of the northern cavefish, Amblyopsis spelaea. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife, Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program,, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 99 pp.
• Poly, W.J. & Proudlove, G.S. 2004. Family Amblyopsidae Bonaparte 1846: cavefishes. California Academy of Sciences Annotated Checklists of Fishes 25: 1–7.
• Poulson, T.L. 1961. Cave adaptation in amblyopsid cavefishes. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. 185 pp. doi:10.7302/9847
• Poulson, T.L. 1963. Cave adaptation in amblyopsid cavefishes. The American Midland Naturalist 70: 257–290. doi:10.2307/2423056
• Putnam, F.W. 1872. The blind fishes of the Mammoth Cave and their allies. The American Naturalist 6: 6–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2446708. details
• Swofford, D.L. 1976. Genetic variability, population differentiation and biochemical relationships in the family Amblyopsidae. Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky, USA. 193 pp.
• Swofford, D.L., Branson, B.A. & Sievert, G.A. 1980. Genetic differentiation of cavefish populations (Amblyopsidae). Isozyme Bulletin 13: 109–110.
• Walsh, S.J. 2000. Conservation of aquatic karst biotas: shedding light on troubled waters. In: Abell, R.A. (ed), Freshwater Ecoregions of North America: A Conservation Assessment, pp. 106–108. Island Press, Washington, DC, USA.
• Whittaker, F.H. & Zober, S.J. 1978. Proteocephalus poulsoni sp. n. (Cestoda: Proteocephalidae) from the northern cavefish Amblyopsis spelaea DeKay, 1842 (Pisces: Amblyopsidae) of Kentucky. Folia Parasitologica 25: 277–280. https://folia.paru.cas.cz/pdfs/fol/1978/03/11.pdf. details
• Woods, L.P. & Inger, R.F. 1957. The cave, spring, and swamp fishes of the family Amblyopsidae of central and eastern United States. The American Midland Naturalist 58: 232–256. doi:10.2307/2422371

How to cite this account

Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

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