5/31/2006: New species found

Undertoad • May 31, 2006 3:21 pm

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 • May 31, 2006 3:27 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 • May 31, 2006 3:33 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 • May 31, 2006 4:09 pm

I hope they're tasty with butter.

MaggieL • May 31, 2006 4:17 pm

Brianna wrote:
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 • May 31, 2006 4:40 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 • May 31, 2006 4:43 pm

Kitsune wrote:
I hope they're tasty with butter.

It always gets back to the food.

Pancake Man • May 31, 2006 4:55 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 • May 31, 2006 5:04 pm

Undertoad wrote:
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 • May 31, 2006 5:06 pm

Wonder what would be discovered here?

milkfish • May 31, 2006 5:32 pm

Whatever it is, it ain't kosher.

Brianna wrote:
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 • May 31, 2006 5:34 pm

Brianna wrote:
How come when they go finding new species it's...[a]...gross, yucky thing like that?

Because They're Made Out Of Meat.

gerstle • May 31, 2006 5:41 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 • May 31, 2006 6:04 pm

Why? Were they Palestinian critters? :haha:

Tse Moana • May 31, 2006 7:27 pm

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

richlevy • May 31, 2006 8:44 pm

Tse Moana wrote:
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.:eek:;)

busterb • May 31, 2006 9:18 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 • May 31, 2006 9:47 pm

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

Tse Moana • May 31, 2006 10:10 pm

richlevy wrote:
Yes, but watch out for the ancient evil that has now been released from its tomb.:eek:;)

I'm not afraid of anything... :neutral: Well... *goes to get a gasmask* :D

SeanAhern • Jun 1, 2006 12:14 am

mitheral wrote:
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! :nuke: :)

miss_chance • Jun 1, 2006 2:28 am

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

salty • Jun 1, 2006 4:00 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 • Jun 1, 2006 9:07 am

SeanAhern wrote:
Geothermal? Algae, mold, and such?

Gotta be geothermal. That's where the algae and mold would get their energy.

wolf • Jun 1, 2006 1:18 pm

Kitsune wrote:
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 • Jun 1, 2006 2:23 pm

wolf wrote:
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 • Jun 1, 2006 2:50 pm

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

glatt • Jun 1, 2006 5:04 pm

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

MaggieL • Jun 2, 2006 10:42 pm

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

richlevy • Jun 3, 2006 12:45 pm

wolf wrote:
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 • Jun 3, 2006 1:56 pm

glatt wrote:
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 • Jun 3, 2006 4:27 pm

But scallops are ok, I reckon.

and octopus and calamari! :yum:

rkzenrage • Jun 3, 2006 11:29 pm

wolf wrote:
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":spam1:

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