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German Scientist Discovers New Insect Order
iphayd writes: "An entomologist in Germany has discovered the first species in a new order of insects. National Geographic News has a story here. The new species, called 'the gladiator,' is a 'cross between a stick insect, a mantid, and a grasshopper.'"
"This discovery is comparable to finding a mastodon or saber-toothed tiger," said Piotr Naskrecki, director of Conservation International's new Invertebrate Diversity Initiative
Yes, except either of those animals could a) smush you, or b) gore you... this little guy will just creep-you-out! "Ew, get it off! get it off!"
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Actually, size has nothing to do with the difficulty in find them. In fact, we just "Discovered" a huge (13 meter) octopus the other day because one happened to be caught in a fishing net. Nobody even suspected this species.
On the other hand, there are several species that are know from the fossil record but are presumed to be extinct (like this insect.)
The most notable one is the Celocanth (Ancient Fish) which is almost unchanged from it's fossil records (70 million years old) but was "first" found in the ocean in the 1930's.
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