Eyeless, colorless fish inhabit the rivers running through caverns beneath the eastern and southern United States. Who needs eyes or a flashy appearance when you live in complete darkness? Remarkably, this trait evolved independently at least four times among cavefish, making them a striking example of convergent evolution in action. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Scientists at Yale University examined the DNA of all known amblyopsid cavefish species, paying close attention to 88 genes related to vision.

Hundreds of species of cavefish are found across all continents, except Antarctica, but this study focused only on Amblyopsidae, a family that dwells in the fresh waters of the eastern and southern regions of the US

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