850 Mostly Blind, Pale, New Species Discovered Underground

[Cheryl Jones]

850 Mostly Blind, Pale Creatures Discovered Underground
By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience
posted: 28 September 2009

Down under in Australia, down underground, scientists have found 850 previously unknown species living in subterranean water, caves and micro-caverns.

These insects, crustaceans, spiders and worms are likely only about one-fifth of the number of undiscovered species the researchers think exist underground amid the harsh conditions of the Australian outback. Two species of blind fish and two of blind eels were also uncovered.

"What we've found is that you don't have to go searching in the depths of the ocean to discover new species of invertebrate animals — you just have to look in your own backyard," said researcher Andy Austin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia. [Scientists say only a fraction of the species of plants and animals on the planet have been discovered.]
Read on: http://www.livescience.com/animals/0909 ... round.html

[pub]

Great article! Here is NatGeo's article with 9 more photos like this blind pseudoscorpion:


—Photograph courtesy Julianne Waldock and Bill Humphreys, Western Australian Museum

NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found