New species found in isolated cave

Cristian Lascu (left) explores Movile (Credit: Thierry Berrod, Mona Lisa Production/SPL)

It’s currently only accessible with special permission, although the central caverns are naturally “guarded” by a series of vertical shafts and narrow limestone tunnels.

Once deep inside the cave, the air contains only half of the amount of oxygen as outside and is super high in carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

But within this ultra-harsh environment, biologists have so far identified 48 species, including spiders, water scorpions, pseudoscorpions, centipedes, leeches, and isopods — 33 of which are totally unique to this one cave.

A waterscorpion (Nepa sp.) attacks its crustacean prey (Credit: Patrick Landmann/SPL)

Pretty much every creature found to be thriving in the cave have no vision and lack pigment altogether. Most have extra-long limbs and antennae that assist them in getting around in a pitch black place that hasn’t seen sunlight in 5.5 million years.

Source: matadornetwork.com