A new species has been discovered under a secretive military base known as Alabama‘s Area 51.
Researchers in Huntsville named it Demogorgonichthys arcanus, or ‘demon cavefish,’ and revealed that the creature has no eyes, no skin color, grows to just two inches in length and lives in one tiny pool in an underground cave below the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal.
While the new lifeform is not from another world, this tiny, otherworldly species was discovered by a University of Alabama team exploring the space under a military facility linked to UFOs and classified research into missiles, rockets and space-related technology.
DNA tests showed the fish is related to other North American cavefish but appeared to diverge from other similar species about 11.6 million years ago.
It completely adapted to life underground, shedding its eyes and growing special sensory organs all over its body over millions of years of evolution.
The team said that the fish is so genetically unique compared to other known cavefish that they placed it in a new biological subgroup.
For example, the team found a gene normally used for eyesight that had been badly broken in the demon fish. Scientists expected to find this in the animals because they live in total darkness and no longer need sight.
However, the team was completely surprised to find this new creature had evolved side-by-side in the same pools with the Southern Cavefish, known as Typhlichthys subterraneus, taking a completely different evolutionary path despite living in the same place.
Scientists have discovered a new species underneath a base tied to UFO conspiracies in Huntsville, Alabama
The ‘demon cavefish’ (Demogorgonichthys arcanus) is similar in appearance to other cavefish scientists have found but is said to be genetically unique
Scientists revealed that while finding independent evolutionary paths among different cavefish species has happened before, uncovering a unique creature adapting in its own way in the exact same pool alongside other cavefish is very rare.
Dr Matthew Niemiller, associate professor of biological sciences, said in a press release: ‘This is one of the last places we’d have bet on it.’
‘Finding an entirely unknown, new genus of freshwater fish in eastern North America today is a little like finding a new kind of big cat. The group is so well known, we thought the big surprises were behind us. To have one turn up in a cave we’ve watched for three decades is a real reminder to stay curious. It was genuinely surprising.’
Only a handful of the demon fish were seen in the team’s observations between 2019 and 2025, which were published in Scientific Reports.
The fish has only been found in this one small aquifer system, and it is believed to have a very small habitat underneath Redstone Arsenal.
Since the fish, which is less than two inches long, lives in such a tiny area of the cave and depends on groundwater to survive, Niemiller’s team considers it highly vulnerable to pollution, changes in water flow, droughts and floods – making it critically imperiled and possibly a critically endangered species.
The fact that the cave is under Redstone Arsenal is believed to have given the fish some protection from extinction, since base restrictions have kept the public from building on the site and destroying the cave.
Although the base’s cave is protected from the public, scientists found that the environment the fish were living in was still contaminated – apparently with residue from chemical weapons.
The fish was found in a cave under Redstone Arsenal, a US Army base that also houses US Space Command
Scientists found that the cave was contaminated with materials used in both conventional and chemical weapons
‘Trace metals, including cadmium, chromium, and lead, have been detected at elevated concentrations in water samples from Bobcat Cave over the past two decades,’ the team wrote in their study.
Niemiller’s team said the most likely reason for the pollution was that Bobcat Cave sits under an old industrial part of Redstone Arsenal where the Army used to dispose of both regular and chemical explosives.
Some of those materials seem to have slowly leaked into the underground water that flows into the cave.
Cadmium, chromium and lead are all metals that can be harmful to living things even in small amounts.
Lead has served as the main metal in most bullets and projectiles. Lead compounds have also been used in primers, the part that starts the explosion when the trigger is pulled.
Meanwhile, both chromium and cadmium have been used by the military as a protective plating that resists rust and corrosion.
Redstone Arsenal has been called the Area 51 of Alabama
Unproven claims have alleged that recovered UFOs were taken to Redstone Arsenal in 2026
The mysterious base opened in 1941 to support the US during World War II, and it now has a workforce of more than 45,000 military personnel, civilian employees and contractors.
According to a government fact sheet about Redstone: ‘The installation is the birthplace of NASA and has grown to include more than 65 diverse and distinct organizations.’
However, the base’s newest task – becoming the home for US Space Command – has revived decades-old UFO conspiracy theories tied to Redstone Arsenal.
In fact, just a month after US Space Command officially transferred its operations to Redstone, unproven allegations began spreading online claiming that non-human craft being held at Area 51 in Nevada were being moved to Alabama.
In 2020, Amy Eskridge, a researcher working on anti-gravity technology in Huntsville, claimed during an explosive interview that the source of UFO and alien disclosure would be Redstone Arsenal.
Eskridge, who died in 2022, said: ‘Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama is the biggest f****** deal that you’ve never heard of.’
