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Cavefish embryo Confocal micrograph of a blind cavefish embryo at around five days post-fertilisation viewed from the side (lateral view). The cavefish Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) has a seeing and a blind form; the latter lives in dark environments, and relies on other senses.

with an antibody that targets a calcium binding protein (calretinin) shown in green, which highlights different neuronal types and their processes in the nervous system. The blind cavefish has specially adapted traits that its sighted relation (dwelling near the surface) does not. These include a greater number of sensory receptors and taste buds along its body; these taste buds are also more efficient than the equivalent cells in the seeing cavefish. The eyes are still present at this stage of development but they will degenerate naturally during the lifetime of the fish as they live in a dark environment where eyes are redundant. Adult cavefish are blind.

Without eyes, the fish can put more energy towards growth and reproduction, rather than using that energy to maintain the useless structures. Additionally, the eyes are easy points of entry for infections. "In that environment, losing your eyes gives you a little bit of an edge,"

Pictured above is a very peculiar fish that lives in a few North American caves. It looks very much like other fish, except in one respect: it has no eyes. The story of its adaptation to life in pitch blackness is one of the weirdest stories in evolutionary history.

Rare and unusual ... translucent Golden-line Barbell fish at Taipei's Sea World. The eightcentimetre-long fish, which are only found in an underground river in China's Yunnan province, were first found in 1976 when a farmer was digging a 100-metre-deep well.