Alabama researchers make an exciting discovery at Shelta Cave.
The discovery was made in 2019 and 2020 in the Shelta Cave in northwest Huntsville. The school made the announcement Wednesday after the team published its research article last month.
“To the best of our knowledge, only 115 individuals had been confirmed from 1963 through 1975. Since then, only three have been confirmed – one in 1988 and the two individuals we report in 2019 and 2020,” Matthew Niemiller, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UAH, said in the school’s announcement.
Niemiller led the team of researchers that wrote the research article published by Subterranean Biology. Co-authors are Katherine Dooley and Denise Kendall Niemiller, both of UAH, and Nathaniel Sturm of the University of Alabama.