8 New Species Discovered in Israel

The BBC is reporting that 8 new species have been found in a cave system in Israel. To date, the series of caves have been a sealed ecosystem:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5036618.stm

The white scorpion looks like a very cool critter

Mel

Too sad now is unsealed and members of that community (who should be considered endangered and unique species) taken away as specimmens for the glory of few.

They say: "They can give a very good insight into how robust life, and the evolutionary process driving it, can be,"

don´t we already know that?...tough luck for these little guys, the aliens just arrived...

It is a fascinating discovery. The BBC article is a short version which doesn't include any information on how access to the cave is now completely restricted to prevent wanton destruction of the ecosystem and contamination.

Davichin - why do you say "for the glory of few" - because the scientists publicized the find? Taxonomists like me are an endangered species. Despite all the lip service by government officials about the importance of biodiversity there's very little money to support basic taxonomy or training new specialists. Getting people excited over new discoveries via public media is a vital part of keeping taxonomy alive.

Davichin - why do you say "for the glory of few" - because the scientists publicized the find?

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Because they will want to get samples of everything they find to put a latin version of their last names to those poor little guys...

Getting people excited over new discoveries via public media is a vital part of keeping taxonomy alive.

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I find is a paradox that, in order to keep taxonomy alive, animals must be killed

Using your own name (or that of someone who shares your name) is a no-no in taxonomy. All the taxonomists I know are in the biz because they love animals, certainly not for name recognition or money!

You're right, it is a paradox that we end up killing the things we love in order to study them. We do it because we feel the resulting information is a worthy & necessary expansion of what people know about the world we share. We hope that what we produce enables others to make better decisions about how humans treat our shared environment.

On the other hand, how do you feel about killing ants, mosquitos, flies, beetles, earthworms, or garden slugs? These are the land equivalents of the marine crustaceans, worms, and nudibranchs that people oou & aah over when diving. What about hiking on grassy meadows or sitting on moss under a tree? There are small inverts & plants there same as on a reef. Our selective sampling does less harm than a diver with poor control thrashing a reef. How do we compare both of these examples to a construction barge pulverizing a reef down to bare limestone? Runoff from a gold mine smothering & poisoning everything from the reef to the people that depend on it? In the case of the cave system the people in charge have limited access, taken steps to prevent contamination, and collected only a few individuals for research.