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Scientists Find Ancient Ecosystem In Israeli Cave
An anonymous reader writes "Israeli scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered a prehistoric ecosystem dating back millions of years. Scientists were called in and soon found eight previously unknown species of crustaceans and invertebrates similar to scorpions. The cave, which Hebrew University Professor Amos Frumkin said is 'unique in the world,' had been sealed off from the outside world since its surface is situated under a layer of chalk that is impenetrable to water."
Question is, will these new species be able to survive now that they have been opened up to the outside world?
If they find a bunch of pulsating eggs in the back of the cave, Chest-busters will definitely be a new species to runaway from.
Well at least it appears the cave doesn't contain some cryptovirus that none of the surface world's immune systems can defeat. Although realistically the opposite is more likely to be true, and everything in the cave gets killed by invading crickets or something.
If they've been in the dark for so long, what have they been eating? You have to get energy into an ecosystem somehow.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
it's more likely to find a dinosaur than a slashdotter that reads tfa
"Every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," said Dimantman. How do the scientists know that considering the so called blind scorpion was dead and the others were live. Perhaps eyes looked differently and evolved into what they now expect. For all they know those creatures could have had some motion imaging sensors that were eyes. Anyhow here is a picture of the scorpion. What that article also failed to mention was that all but one scorpion were found alive:
k nown_Prehistoric_Species_Discovered_In_Israel_Cave .html
The invertebrate animals found in the cave - four seawater and freshwater crustaceans and four terrestial species - are related to but different from other, similar life forms known to scientists. The species have been sent to biological experts in both Israel and abroad for further analysis and dating. It is estimated that these species are millions of years old. Also found in the cave were bacteria that serve as the basic food source in the ecosystem.
The animals found there were all discovered live, except for a blind species of scorpion, although Dr. Dimentman is certain that live scorpions will be discovered in further explorations and also probably an animal or animals which feed on the scorpions.
http://www.playfuls.com/news_001136_Previously_Un
Infiltrated dot Net
The explorers also found the development team of Duke Nukem Forever, which has also been around for millions of years.
It could have Al-Queda or something inside. We should shove a few thermobarric bombs in there just to make sure.
Science-whata-you-say? Screw the science! We have a significant terrorist threat on our hands; no precaution is too much.
(Btw, what do these new creatures taste like? Are they good with garlic butter?)
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
They were cut off from light for so many years and 'de-evolved' their eyes.
The quarry men who knew to call the scientists.
but it is still more likely that you would find a caveman among slashdotters than a dinosaur in a cave somewhere.
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
you see, these here are just some lousy blind scorpions. what you are thinking of is the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Jesus said to his disciples: "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" - Luke 22:36
http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search _eng.pl?mesge114907691205976587
It's 2-3 times longer than the wire service story and answers the 'what they're eating' question and others.
There is a picture of a scorpion linked on this thread
What the heck did John, Paul, and George have to do with this discovery?
They probably found a whole microscopic universe living in one of those long crusty beards.
If they're anything like these newly discovered critters, then yes, they are delicious!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Flamebait? Obviously someone has a poor sense of humor.
Cryptozoology?
That's fun for everyone!
Get your Unix fortune now!
Even crustaceans breathe oxygen and expel CO, so what transformed oxygen to O2?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Crustaceans are the lobster-like critter in the image.
Scorpions? Long passageways? If you find a Mayan temple down there DO NOT GO INSIDE.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
If they're being kept in the dark, then they're feeding off 24-hour news.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Surely you saw the bit on saltwater crustaceans. :) The real reason that DNF hasn't been released is that they've not evolved hands to operate the keyboard. The code was finished five and a half million years ago.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Sealed off from the outside world, probably dark and dirty in that cave, with mysterious life forms growing within. Sounds like a typical /.ers house to me.
(Ducks)
Good point. If eyes were so damn great, we wouldn't have had to invent beer to overcome them.
.. who said anything about dinosaurs? Way to attack a strawman for karma.
Interesting how the scorpions are completely white without any distinct markings, etc. In fact, I believe I've seen other creatures that live in no-light or low-light conditions that were all-white as well
While the debate that the 'dead' scorpion was blind due to evolution may be one way to think about it, how about the color of the creatures found (so far I've only seen scorpions). Do creatures that live in no-light situations evolve to be colourless as colour is not useful without light? Does this show that other creatures in light-available areas develop pigments etc to serve a function based on their environment?
To me, it seems to show that evolution works in a fashion (though to those that argue, it does not prove or disprove that men could come from fish or monkeys... whatever your opinion along those longs)
He added in that regard that he is hopeful that the planning authorities will enable the company to operate in alternate areas in order to help preserve the scientific site.
Alternate area to operate in, under sketchy pretenses of aiding science? In Israel? Of course we do! How about a lovely river bank?
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
Look for the Israeli government to establish settlements in this cave in the near future, along with access roads that will keep the crustaceans and invertebrates from moving around freely.
Actually I just found it interesting as to where the finding was; there have been very noted public struggles between entities in the Holy Land regarding antiquities and archaeological findings/interpretations. Evidently someone who doesn't agree considers that Trolling, but that's life, no? *shrug*.
I do indeed wonder what the local spin is going to be on it.
Blacker than my baby girl's stare. Black like the veil that the muslimina wear. Black like the planet that they fear...
So many people misuse the statement "millions of years old" when talking about living organisms.. They'd be long dead if they are millions of years old.. They may have diverged from their closest 'outside the cave' ancestors millions of years ago, but this doesn't mean that they are millions of years old.. Evolution never stops, not even in dark/damp caves.. These organisms had evolved and adapted to their environment: the dark, damp, enclosed cave.. Some have adapted by losing sight (due to lack of use), while others most likely gained senses to help them survive in their unique environment. Their rate of evolution may have changed and adapted features may differ, but evolution never stops.
Also, along the same lines.. Human ancestors probably never looked like 20th century monkeys/apes.. monkeys, apes, and humans have all evolved since human speciation occured.. this means that they might be amongst our closest relatives, but their evolution continued along a different path.
And show it live on pay per view. Goddam hippies. Tom
We just need some scientist in San Diego to upload the brains of these new crustaceans into computers so they can hack into the Moscow Windows NT user group, then get in touch with Manfred. He can find them jobs in deep space.
If you have no idea what I mean, try:
http://www.asimovs.com/Nebulas03/Lobsters.shtml
Regards.
There is another theory that states that this has already happened.
Fatal epidemic zoonoses, that is animal originated diseases that have a fair chance to kill you and that spread, almost exclusively originate with domesticated animals (cattle, pig, chicken, ducks and the like).
The reason for this is that it takes a long time for the zoonoses to evolve into forms that spread to humans or between humans and to do that there needs to be large concentrations of humans and the originating animals in contact for a long time.
This is the reason that most epidemic diseases developped in Eurasia (most of the domesticable animals originated "here").
True, but in a small closed ecosystem with little to no variance in conditions you will find that speciation comes to pretty much a complete stop once all major niches are filled. At that point, new minor mutations are unlikely to have enough of a benefit to help out compete the existing population.
While evolution may only have slowed down remarkably, in such an environment we might choose to be a little inaccurate and say it has 'stopped' because no noticable change has occured for [insert really long time here].
I don't have a link to support this, but there was also another eco-system like this discovered in Dobrogea region of Romania, a few years ago. The species were as in this case pretty strange and rare.
I just hope those Scorpions aren't too agressive. Check out the details on The Cave over at IMDB if you have no clue what movie I'm talking about. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402901/
My family used to go to a medium sized lake in the U.S.(not sure of location) for our family reunion. On one of those trips we were on the shore of the lake digging in the sand and we found a white no eyed creature that looks extremely close to the same picture of the animal found in this achient ecosystem. We released it and 10 minutes later or so I was sitting on the sand underwater and was stung or bitten by the same thing we released. Am I just mistaken or is there something that lives in central U.S. that looks just like that white animal?- Happened 3 or 4 years ago when I was 10 or 11
Thank you, Mr. Sesquipedalian; I sprained my tounge.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .