Last week I saw a program about the strangest animal..

The olm, (Proteus anguinus), is a blind amphibian endemic to the subterranean waters of caves of the Dinaric karst of southern Europe. It lives in the waters that flow underground through this extensive limestone region including waters of the Soca river basin near Trieste in Italy,through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina.
The olm is the only species in its genus Proteus, only European species of the family Proteidae, only European exclusively cave-dwelling Troglobite chordate.
>*Olm
The olm always lives in absolute darkness and is blind.
The camara man who took the movie camped alone in total darkness with only a flashlight and his camera.

More: Protea.

Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of flowering plants, also called sugarbushes.The genus Protea was named in 1735 by Linnaeus after the Greek god Proteus:
>*Proteus - god who could change his form at will, because the proteas have such different forms.
>* Protea, flower

Proteabacteria
>* Proteobacteria The Proteobacteria are a major group of bacteria. They include a wide variety of pathogens, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, and many other notable genera. Others are free-living, and include many of the bacteria responsible for nitrogen fixation. The group is named for the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape, because of the great diversity of forms found in this group.

Proteus(disambiguation) Proteus has given his name to many things:
>* disambiguation
Strange: while all this name giving takes back to the fact that Proteus could change his form at will,
the olm does not undergo a metamorphoses but keeps his larval state.

(thanks to wiki pages)


Last edited by BranShea; 02/22/08 10:51 PM.