Giraffaphaenops yangi n. sp. is described from a limestone cave named Shizikou Dadong, Tianlin County, northwestern Guangxi, China. It is the second species of this genus, which is the most morphologically modified in the tribe Trechini in terms of troglobiomorphy. So far, Giraffaphaenops ranges in a small karstic area in northwestern Guangxi. Of the two known species, G. clarkei Deuve, 2002 wa...

The emergence of cave art in Europe about 30,000 years ago is widely believed to be evidence that by this time human beings had developed sophisticated capacities for symbolization and communication. However, comparison of the cave art with the drawings made by a young autistic girl, Nadia, reveals surprising similarities in content and style. Nadia, despite her graphic skills, was mentally def...

Vertebrate fossils from Texas caves have been studied for over 75 years. In that time few summary treatments of Texas caves and their fossil faunas have been published. The only reviews focusing specifically on Texas cave vertebrate paleontology sites were written over 20 years ago (Frank, 1964; Lundelius and Slaughter, 1971). Much work on cave sites in Texas has occurred since these reviews. S...

We introduce a technique called Concave, Adaptive Value Estimation (CAVE) to approximate recourse functions found in stochastic programs. CAVE constructs a sequence of concave (or convex) piecewise-linear approximations using sample gradients of the recourse function at di erent points in the domain. The result is a nonlinear approximation that is more responsive than traditional stochastic qua...

A new scorpion species, Tityus (Tityus) grottoedensis sp. nov., is herein described based on male and female specimens collected in El Edén Cave and its vicinities (Tolima department, Colombia). The new species, which becomes the first scorpion described from a Colombian cave, is probably a eutroglophile or subtroglophile element; however, additional studies are needed to determine the degree o...

A new species of the genus Pristimantis is described from Churi tepui, in the Chimanta massif, Estado Bolivar, Venezuela. The new species was discovered during the Muchimuk Expedition 2009, an ongoing speleological exploration of the Charles Brewer cave system, the largest sandstone cave on Earth. The species is known from only one female, collected near the mouth of the Muchimuk cave, in "non-...

Chordomas are locally aggressive malignant tumors due to their recurrence potential, originating from the embryonic notochord remnants. Chordomas can originate anywhere on the axial skeleton. They are extradural and are spread by bone destruction. Chordomas are locally aggressive tumors which invade the dura mater, and may also present with secondary intradural growth. The Meckel's cave locatio...

We describe a new cave-dwelling species, Cyrtodactylus sanook sp. nov., from Tham Sanook, Chumphon Province, southern Thailand, characterized by a maximum SVL of 79.5 mm; 18-20 longitudinal rows of dorsal tubercles at midbody; a continuous series of enlarged femoral and precloacal scales, no femoral pores, three or four precloacal pores in males (no pores in females), no precloacal groove nor d...

Blombos Cave is an important site on the Southern Cape of South Africa for supporting " modern behavior " of the Middle Stone Age people. Many contend that the MSA people were not fully modern in behavior because the artifact remains do not support the working of organic material, fishing, and other advanced behavior. They also project that these behaviors may not have originated in Africa. How...