The northern cavefish or northern blindfish (''Amblyopsis spelaea'') is found in caves through

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and southern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. It is listed as a threatened species in the United States and the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

lists the species as near threatened. During a 2013 study of ''Amblyopsis spelaea'', scientists found that the species was divided into two distinct evolutionary lineages: one north of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, in Indiana, and one south of the river, in

. The southern population retained the name ''A. spelaea'' and the northern was re-designated ''

Amblyopsis hoosieri ''Amblyopsis'' is a genus of small (up to long) fish in the family Amblyopsidae that are endemic to the central and eastern United States. Like other cavefish, they lack pigmentation and are blind. The most recently described species was in 2014 ...

'' in a 2014 paper published in the journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the editor-in-chief is Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution). It is published by Pensoft Publ ...

''. Neither species is found north of the White River, flowing east to west south of

Bedford, Indiana Bedford is a city in Shawswick Township, Lawrence County, Indiana, Shawswick Township and the county seat of Lawrence County, Indiana, Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. In the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 13,7 ...

References

* Amblyopsidae Cave fish Cavefish, Northern Fish of the United States Fish described in 1842 Taxa named by James Ellsworth De Kay Mammoth Cave National Park {{Percopsiformes-stub