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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
"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 quarry men who knew to call the scientists.
Or it was just God going "Nothing for you to see here..."
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."- Friedrich Nietzsche
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.
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)
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.
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?
Yes, and yes. Pigmentation in water crustaceans is often a matter of camoflage. Producing these pigments has a metabolic cost as does producing eyes. When they are no longer needed for survival, the very slight pressure to conserve energy overwhelms the now missing pressure to disguise oneself to avoid getting eaten.
This is why nearly all species isolated from light for many, many generations end up blind and colorless. What little color they do have is from the materials they are made from instead of from added pigmentation.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
It would depend on how the eyes were removed. If it was the equivalent of /* createEye() */ then it wouldn't take much to evolve back. If it was a gradual reduction in power until the eye was effectively useless, then it would have to re-evolve all the way back again.