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   Undertoad  Wednesday May 31 03:21 PM

5/31/2006: New species found



First posted on the Cellar by elspode, thanks spode!

Picture this: a team is digging in a rock quarry in the middle of Israel, drilling into a kind of chalk that's impervious to water. Maybe they're trying to figure out what's down there, what kind of resources are available in the quarry. 100 meters down, they reach a layer of... nothing.

It's a cave. And it's massive: 2.5 kilometers long, 100 meters deep. With a huge lake - expected, because the cave happened when the water eroded away limestone between layers of chalk where the water didn't erode.

And it's been completely sealed off from the outside world... for ages and ages... perhaps millions of years... until the drill went through its roof.

Found so far are eight new, previously unknown species of beast, including the scorpion-like being.



Who knows how this species first got into this little, cut-off system. Perhaps there was a time, 100,000 years ago, when the cave was closer to ground and a nest of burrowing scorpions dug into the cave. But during its time there, it has gone through evolutionary changes. Since there's never been light in the cave, it's blind, and it has little to no coloration.

Maybe there are scary bacteria bacteria that can kill us! But maybe they'd be killed by sunlight. Who knows, but it makes me want to be a spelunking evolutionary zoologist/bacteriologist. Or maybe not.



Trilby  Wednesday May 31 03:27 PM

How come when they go finding new species it's never a unicorn or pegasus-like creature, but a gross, yucky thing like that?



Happy Monkey  Wednesday May 31 03:33 PM

I suspect it would be more likely that the drill let in the scary bacteria to kill them. Larger ecosystems breed scarier critters, in general.



Kitsune  Wednesday May 31 04:09 PM

I hope they're tasty with butter.



MaggieL  Wednesday May 31 04:17 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna
How come when they go finding new species it's never a unicorn or pegasus-like creature, but a gross, yucky thing like that?
I guess horses with aftermarket mods just don't survive for some reason.


Undertoad  Wednesday May 31 04:40 PM

Because they evolve in the dark, acidic hell-holes of the real world, instead of the glorious fantasy world that only exists in your imagination.



glatt  Wednesday May 31 04:43 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitsune
I hope they're tasty with butter.
It always gets back to the food.


Pancake Man  Wednesday May 31 04:55 PM

Always glatt. Always.

I love this kind of thing. Means that we are a few steps away from something huge. If you can find eight new species digging in a quarry, well, there is a quarry down the street....



MaggieL  Wednesday May 31 05:04 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
Because they evolve in the dark, acidic hell-holes of the real world, instead of the glorious fantasy world that only exists in your imagination.
Fundamentally, though we try to ignore the fact most of the time, life is inherently yucky.

Anybody who's been present at a birthing or an autopsy has seen evidence of this.


LabRat  Wednesday May 31 05:06 PM

Wonder what would be discovered here?



milkfish  Wednesday May 31 05:32 PM

Whatever it is, it ain't kosher.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna
How come when they go finding new species it's never a unicorn or pegasus-like creature, but a gross, yucky thing like that?
Funny, that's also what the scorpion-lobster thing said to itself when the first human explorer showed up.


MaggieL  Wednesday May 31 05:34 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna
How come when they go finding new species it's...[a]...gross, yucky thing like that?
Because They're Made Out Of Meat.


gerstle  Wednesday May 31 05:41 PM

in related news...

we have successfully wiped out 7... no, wait... there it is, make that 8 new species within 36 hours of their discovery. It's a new world record folks!



xoxoxoBruce  Wednesday May 31 06:04 PM

Why? Were they Palestinian critters?



Tse Moana  Wednesday May 31 07:27 PM

This so tickles my archaeology bone, it makes me want to take the first flight to Israel and go look myself.



richlevy  Wednesday May 31 08:44 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tse Moana
This so tickles my archaeology bone, it makes me want to take the first flight to Israel and go look myself.
Yes, but watch out for the ancient evil that has now been released from its tomb.


busterb  Wednesday May 31 09:18 PM

I know the food thing has been hit on, but I'll "please" have 10lbs, boiled, w/new taters and corn on cob. Anyway after looking at some of the crap that is on tv that the great minds dream up. Damn it's a wonder that anyone still has a brain to do things like that. Good stuff!



mitheral  Wednesday May 31 09:47 PM

Where the heck is the energy coming from to sustain this ecosystem?



Tse Moana  Wednesday May 31 10:10 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by richlevy
Yes, but watch out for the ancient evil that has now been released from its tomb.
I'm not afraid of anything... Well... *goes to get a gasmask*


SeanAhern  Thursday Jun 1 12:14 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by mitheral
Where the heck is the energy coming from to sustain this ecosystem?
Geothermal? Algae, mold, and such?

I know...the species actually developed a specialized form of cold fusion that's been powering their civilization for thousands to millions of years!


miss_chance  Thursday Jun 1 02:28 AM

I wonder if we'll find anything this complex beneath the surface of Mars?



salty  Thursday Jun 1 04:00 AM

My first guess is they aren't Kosher. I think it was the whole crustacean thing.

If you know Ramle, then only in Ramle. That place is a dive.



Happy Monkey  Thursday Jun 1 09:07 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanAhern
Geothermal? Algae, mold, and such?
Gotta be geothermal. That's where the algae and mold would get their energy.


wolf  Thursday Jun 1 01:18 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitsune
I hope they're tasty with butter.
I don't know if I want to eat a creature that isn't capable of staring at me.


Happy Monkey  Thursday Jun 1 02:23 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
I don't know if I want to eat a creature that isn't capable of staring at me.
Eyes aren't the issue for me - I require exactly four limbs.


wolf  Thursday Jun 1 02:50 PM

You miss out on a lot of tasty stuff because of that.



glatt  Thursday Jun 1 05:04 PM

So do you, with the eyes thing. Clam sauce spaghetti. Yum.



MaggieL  Friday Jun 2 10:42 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
I don't know if I want to eat a creature that isn't capable of staring at me.



richlevy  Saturday Jun 3 12:45 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
I don't know if I want to eat a creature that isn't capable of staring at me.
Shouldn't this be in the sex thread?:p


wolf  Saturday Jun 3 01:56 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
So do you, with the eyes thing. Clam sauce spaghetti. Yum.
Nope. Don't eat 'em. Yes, I have tried. Nasty little bivalves, clams. I won't eat the chowdah, either, Manhattan or New England. Or the Clamboat at Friendly's. Or oysters, or mussels, or any of their other brethren. Nope, no whelks. Or cockleshells or whatever sea shells she sold by the sea shore.

I miss out on fewer creatures, though.


BigV  Saturday Jun 3 04:27 PM

But scallops are ok, I reckon.

and octopus and calamari!



rkzenrage  Saturday Jun 3 11:29 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
Nope. Don't eat 'em. Yes, I have tried. Nasty little bivalves, clams. I won't eat the chowdah, either, Manhattan or New England. Or the Clamboat at Friendly's. Or oysters, or mussels, or any of their other brethren. Nope, no whelks. Or cockleshells or whatever sea shells she sold by the sea shore.

I miss out on fewer creatures, though.
Pop always said "if you ain't related to it an' it ain't poison, it's food... an' there's exceptions to both a' those rules"


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