New Animal Species Found in Calif. Caves.

Blindside

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arnisador said:
Salamanders of Unusal Size? I don't believe they exist.

I do agree that this finding is humbling. Nature still ahs so many surprises for us! I think of the deep-sea creatures discovered near hot vents too. It's amazing!

These guys max out at around 13 inches.
 

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arnisador

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Blindside said:
These guys max out at around 13 inches.

Yeah, me too.

Well, I suppose those are indeed of unusual size, like the giant Iraqi spiders.

Anyway, I thought the cave discoveries were pretty cool--those are just two caves, and some of the species are specialized for single rooms within them! What else is waiting out there?
 

MA-Caver

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Well the mods have my vote (for what it's worth) to split this thread and put the penile talk in the AfterDark room where it belongs.

Either way there was the question of what else there may be waiting to be discovered? In one cave in New Mexico named Lechuguilla which is roughly five miles from Carlsbad Caverns there has been found microbes that are totally indigienous to the cave, these were studied by a microbiologist caving friend of mine and she suspects that these little buggers might hold the key to a cure for lukemia, research is still on going at this point.
As far as totally new animal species, this discovery is not at all surprising to a troglodyte like myself. I am consistently seeing a species of (cave) beetle that is in all respects the same body shape, color and size as one commonly seen in caves but with bright orange bands/markings on it's caprice. Eventually (with permission) I will collect one of each specimen and take them over to BYU's biologists and see if the odd one isn't a new sub-species.
I did find an extremely rare species of snake in a pit (probably fell in accidently) and took it over to the same dept. and the guy went nuts.
Pretty cool stuff they're finding in California to be sure.

:D
 
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arnisador

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That's what gets me...multiply 13.5 new species/cave by all the caves in the world that might harbor such discoveries...it's an amazing possibility!
 

jdinca

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arnisador said:
Salamanders of Unusal Size? I don't believe they exist.

I do agree that this finding is humbling. Nature still ahs so many surprises for us! I think of the deep-sea creatures discovered near hot vents too. It's amazing!

As many new species as we find on land, it pales in comparison to the ocean. We've only explored 10% of it.
 

tshadowchaser

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Just when scientests think they have it all catagorised we find more

I love it
 

Blindside

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tshadowchaser said:
Just when scientests think they have it all catagorised we find more

I love it

Scientists have NEVER thought "we have it all categorized," in fact I suspect most of the life scientists out there are far more aware of how little we know than the average person.

Lamont
 

MA-Caver

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arnisador said:
That's what gets me...multiply 13.5 new species/cave by all the caves in the world that might harbor such discoveries...it's an amazing possibility!
Yep... consider this... Indiana state has literally thousands of caves, as do Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia (Hi Tess and Ping), Utah has at least 700 known caves with several hundred more waiting to be discovered. So with that in mind the math is enough to give even Ping a headache.
Then consider how many caves are in China, Russia, The Med. Alps, South America and so on.
The possibilites are endless. Yet I cannot help but think that all the "BIG" animals have been found/discovered (bigger than a bread box big). Well there's always Nessie and Sasquatch. :D
 

jfarnsworth

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Well all I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't me down in those caves!! I hate creepy crawly things.
 

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