Cavefish Suddenly Appear in the Cave, White Pteromys Xanthipes

Watching the bullet comments, Lin Xuan curiously walked over.

As expected, he found a pond over here.

When Lin Xuan's light shone on the surface of the pond, he saw the shadow of something flash by.

Seeing this, Lin Xuan was a little surprised. He stopped, and disregarding the cold ground, he directly crawled by the edge of the pond and looked carefully into it.

The bottom of the pond was dim, and it wasn't very clear, but he could be sure that something was slowly moving in the pond.

Seeing this, Lin Xuan immediately confirmed that there was indeed some creature in the pond. As for what kind of creature it was, he could only know when he saw it clearly.

With that thought, Lin Xuan got up from the ground, opened the System Mall, and redeemed a miniature underwater drone the size of a pinky nail!

When this thing appeared, Lin Xuan threw it into the water. To avoid disturbing the unknown creature underwater, he deliberately sank the drone slowly.

The pond water was very clear, so the shooting vision was excellent.

When it dived to a certain depth, a group of small, weak creatures appeared in the lens.

Their body length was about 10 centimeters. Their bodies were semi-transparent, like the Li Bo blind loach.

Under the light, their bodies were as transparent as jade, with their internal organs and blood vessels clearly visible.

(Damn, this pond actually has fish!)

(Did they live here all along, never seeing the sun?)

(Streamer, streamer, what kind of fish is this?)

"If I'm not mistaken, these should be cavefish."

(Cavefish? They're called that because they live in caves? That's too casual.)

(Haha, I think the name suits these fish perfectly.)

"Cavefish have small eyes and no visual function. Their bodies and heads are covered with sensitive tactile organs, so they can feel things they cannot see."

They show a clear trend of degeneration, mainly reflected in the distribution of body scales and the relative size of lateral line scales. For example, the body scales of Hypsibarbus annandalei are significantly smaller than the lateral line scales.

Species with more developed body scales, or larger lateral scales that cover the entire trunk and are arranged in a tiled manner, some species retain sheaths at the base of the dorsal fin, such as Hypsibarbus bimaculatus, or the lateral line scales are equal to or slightly larger than the scales above and below the lateral line. Species with smaller body scales have lateral line scales significantly larger than the scales above and below the lateral line.

Species with more degenerate body scales have scales that are not only thinner and finer but also embedded under the skin in a neat arrangement, covering the entire trunk, with the base of the dorsal fin exposed without a sheath, such as Hypsibarbus ornatus.

The most extreme example of scale degeneration is seen in species like Parambassis ranga, which are scaleless throughout their bodies, with only extremely thin lateral lines remaining under the skin, retaining lateral line pores.

From this, it can be seen that the degeneration rate of lateral line scales is significantly slower than that of other body scales. This phenomenon of allometric degeneration of scales also exists in other cyprinid groups and may be a common evolutionary trend in the scale degeneration process of cyprinid fish.

The body scales of the Li Bo blind loach have basically degenerated. Under a microscope, it can be found that only a very small number of scales are hidden under the skin of the dorsal head, which can only be seen by dissection or scraping. The scales of the Li Bo blind loach have basically degenerated into components of the skin.

Cave-dwelling animals living in completely dark underground streams are unpigmented (except for hemoglobin), semi-transparent, like the Li Bo blind loach. In the surveyed waters at night, they appear pure white and transparent. Live specimens under light are transparent as jade, with internal organs and blood vessels clearly visible.

Lin Xuan explained to the netizens, citing literature.

(So that's how it is. But these cavefish look quite cute.)

(Upstairs, you say anything is cute just because you see it.)

(But they've been living in caves, never seeing the sun, won't they be lonely?)

"Actually, every species has its own way of surviving."

"For example, in the deep sea, there are also transparent fish because they also don't see the sun for years."

"I didn't expect to see such creatures in this cave."

"Perhaps there are other things further down in the cave."

Lin Xuan was also full of anticipation.

Just as Lin Xuan was about to move forward, a "dudulu" sound suddenly came to his ears.

(What's that sound? It sounds a bit scary.)

(Suddenly hearing such a sound in this cave, even though I'm watching through the livestream, I was startled by this sudden interruption.)

Lin Xuan was also confused by the sound.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xuan decided to go and see.

He followed the direction of the sound and searched for it.

Under the illumination of the flashlight, a creature that looked like a squirrel soon appeared in everyone's sight.

(Is that a squirrel?)

(No, this squirrel-like creature seems to have wings.)

(Its big dark eyes, its fur is basically snow-white, it looks so cute!)

(Indeed, I also feel that this squirrel-like creature is much cuter than those cavefish just now.)

When everyone saw the appearance of this squirrel-like creature, they all exclaimed "cute."

At this moment, Ink Plum Like Painting also appeared.

She appeared in the livestream room and provided some information: (This should be a Pteromys xanthipes. Pteromys xanthipes is also called Orange-footed Flying Squirrel, Yellow-footed Flying Squirrel, Cold-howling Bird, Cold-howling Bug, Cold-dangling Bug. It is a rodent.)

(Although its name is Cold-howling Bird, it is not a bird, because it can fly.)

(??? An animal that looks like a squirrel, and it can actually fly?)

"Ink Plum Like Painting is right, this is indeed a Pteromys xanthipes."

"However, they don't truly fly in the sky, they just glide."

"Furthermore, flying squirrels are not true squirrels; they are small animals belonging to the suborder Sciurini."

Lin Xuan explained.

(Oh, I see why this squirrel-like animal looked familiar. So it's a Pteromys xanthipes. I've seen videos of them on Little Broken Station, and those Pteromys xanthipes were pets.)

(If you just hold out your hand, it will glide from a high place onto your hand.)

(But these creatures can also get quite depressed. If you don't catch it when it glides over, it might get depressed and even commit suicide.)

(???)

(This is too cute, it's like when your girlfriend is angry and you can't appease her.)

[Congratulations to the host for successfully unlocking the Pteromys xanthipes illustration, S-Class.]

[Pteromys xanthipes: Aliases: Orange-footed Flying Squirrel, Yellow-footed Flying Squirrel, Cold-howling Bird, Cold-howling Bug, Cold-dangling Bug, Hé Gǔn.]

{[Chinese scientific name: Pteromys xanthipes, Latin scientific name: Trogopterus xanthipes.]

{[Kingdom: Animal Kingdom, Phylum: Phylum Chordata, Subphylum: Subphylum Vertebrata, Class: Mammalia, Subclass: Theria.]}