L Roebuck
Technical Support
Caving
^V^ Just a caver
Posts: 2,023
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Post by L Roebuck on Dec 6, 2007 8:42:30 GMT -5
Creatures of the darkSandy Clark , News-Leader You might not think of finding the great outdoors indoors, but in a sense, that's what you will find in a Missouri cave. Beneath our feet are entire ecosystems at work. There are many unique critters roaming our caves, said Dwight Weaver, the author of several books on caves, including "Missouri Caves in History and Legend." "There is a food chain within a cave and bats are at the top," Weaver said. "Most cave life is small and fragile. It can be classified into those creatures which are transient (they just visit the cave briefly), those which live most of their life within the cave but go to the surface to get food, and those creatures who live underground and never visit the outside world." Bill Elliot, a resource scientist specializing in cave life for the Missouri Department of Conservation, says these completely cave-adapted creatures are called troglobites. Full Text
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