Discovery: Eight Anthropod Species

A unique and isolated ecosystem has been discovered in a subterranean lake in a cave 100 metres (328 ft.) below a limestone quarry in central Israel.

Hanan Dimentman, a zoologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, collected specimens of eight previously unknown anthropod species, including four kinds of crustacean, a springtail and a scorpion. DNA tests are being done to determine when the animals might have diverged from their marine and freshwater relatives.

The lake was discovered by a geography masters student, Israel Naaman, as he explored the groundwater beneath the quarry. [Nature magazine, 8 June 2006]

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Photo credit: Hebrew University, Sasson Tiram.