World's deepest land animal discovered

Mickeroo

Been a good week for strange animal discoveries!

It's been found in the deepest known cave in the world. Its part of a group of primative eyeless insects known as Springtails. They generally live in total darkness and feed on fungus and decaying organic matter. This one has been dubbed Plutomurus ortobalaganensis.

In the dark abyss of the world's deepest known cave lurks a newfound species of primitive eyeless insect, one that researchers are calling the deepest land animal ever found.

The creature, now known as Plutomurus ortobalaganensis, is one of four newly discovered species of wingless insects called springtails, which commonly live in total darkness in caves, where they feed on fungi and decomposing organic matter.

The insects were collected during the Ibero-Russian CaveX team expedition to the world's deepest known cave during the summer of 2010. The cave, Krubera-Voronja, is located in Abkhazia, a remote area near the Black Sea in the mountains of Western Caucasus, and reaches a depth of 7,188 feet (2,191 meters) below the surface.

Read more here: http://www.livescience.com/18586-deepest-land-animal-cave-springtail.html

I wonder do we have any similar critters in our extensive cave systems here in Ireland? All I've ever seen are spiders and they generally only hang around the entrance where they can nab fying insects.

cavedave

1.8km used to be considered deep
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13620701

There were a few Irish guys in Krubera-Voronja at the time. I'll ask them if they did any of the sample collecting. I don't know what tiny animals live deep in Irish caves. There used to be an albino trout that lived in the river cave that flows through Doolin in Clare.

Mickeroo

cavedave wrote: »

1.8km used to be considered deep
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13620701

There were a few Irish guys in Krubera-Voronja at the time. I'll ask them if they did any of the sample collecting. I don't know what tiny animals live deep in Irish caves. There used to be an albino trout that lived in the river cave that flows through Doolin in Clare.

Ah yes, I've heard stories of the albino fish in co. clare alright!