There’s fascinating news coming out of Israel today: A quarry company found a previously unknown cave about 100 meters below the surface. They called in scientists, who determined it had been closed off from the rest of the world for millions of years.
No light got into the cave, but water and nutrients seeped in through rock crevices above. So what happened? Did every life form trapped in the cave die? Amazingly, all life in the cave was not extinguished. Some species flourished. They evolved:
The invertebrate animals found in the cave — four seawater and freshwater crustaceans and four terrestrial species — are related to but different from other, similar life forms known to scientists. The species have been sent to biological experts in both Israel and abroad for further analysis and dating. It is estimated that these species are millions of years old. Also found in the cave were bacteria that serve as the basic food source in the ecosystem.
“The eight species found thus far are only the beginning of what promises to be a fantastic biodiversity,” said Dr. Hanan Dimentman of the Hebrew University Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, another of the researchers involved in the project. He said that he expects further exploration to reveal several other unique life forms.
None of the species had eyes. In other words they had traded in their eyesight somewhere along the way for features more useful in the darkened cave. How cool and powerful is that?
To tell the truth, it’s a little scary for those of us men living in warm, comfortable climates who no longer need hair upon our heads to keep warm.