It’s nice to see there are still new places to find on this planet.
The discovery was made in a cave near the central Israeli city of Ramle during rock drilling at a quarry. Scientists were called in and soon found eight previously unknown species of crustaceans and invertebrates similar to scorpions.
“Until now eight species of animals were found in the cave, all of them unknown to science,” said Dr Hanan Dimantman, a biologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He said the cave’s ecosystem probably dates back around five million years when the Mediterranean Sea covered parts of Israel.
I wonder what the find will tell us about the region’s development?
Umm, no matter what religious nutcases would like you to believe evolution occurs, so if this place was sealed for a million years, they’re not going to find things as they were a million years ago. Still pretty amazing to discover some new species, even though it’s not any more amazing than discovering species from the ocean depths.
On the matter of evolution, most people don’t remember that it doesn’t necessarily have to happen. It is not mandatory. Evolution involves adaptation, with “Survival of the fittest” referring only to the survival of the organisms best suited for a particular environment.
Lack of evolution proves nothing aside from the fact that the best adapted organisms prevailed, and that further change may be detrimental. Mutant evolutionary descendants may have been less well adapted and their bloodline did not continue, so evolution doesn’t really stop, it just doesn’t need to proceeed.
Study of the organisms in this type of cave may simply show that evolution worked it’s magic, and there is NOTHING that could have changed that would have made the organisms better adapted to their environment. They evolved to peak living conditions.
Cool.. albino crawdads.. I wonder if they taste better than the red kind we have.. They certainly don’t look as meaty though. I’ll bet they’d be really good in a pesto sauce with pasta..
If you’re interested, read about Moville Cave in Romania:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5771/
Similar circumstances.
There’s a documentary about Moville Cave and the unique creatures found there, shown occasionally on the Science Channel (and maybe other Discovery channels).