Tom Iliffe

When Dr. Tom Iliffe checked his email a few weeks ago, he never expected to read a message about a collection of 30-year-old snails.

"The exploration of underwater caves is not without danger." Much of it remains a mystery because it is one of the last unexplored frontiers of the planet.

An international team consisting of scientists from Texas A&M University at Galveston, Denmark, Norway and Mexico have discovered a new species of remipede, a rare group of crustaceans exclusively inhabiting saltwater caves.

Dr. Tom Iliffe, professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston, was honored at the Kenneth L. Clinton Awards luncheon for his work with the Marine Biology Mexico Study Abroad Program.

From the Yucatan Times Scientific teams from Texas A&M University at Galveston and the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City are working jointly to explore and investigate the Ox Bel Ha System, the world’s longest underwater cave, which extends across 150 miles in very remote areas away from tourists.

Cave diver Thomas Iliffe and professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston received an academic appointment as a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

A Texas A&M University at Galveston professor is part of a diving team that descended 462 feet in a West Texas cave, believed to be the deepest underwater cave in the United States.