Researchers Go Underground To Reveal 850 New Species In Australian Outback

Some of the 850 new species discovered in underground water,
caves and micro-caverns across outback Australia.

Australian researchers have discovered a huge number of new species of invertebrate animals living in underground water, caves and "micro-caverns" amid the harsh conditions of the Australian outback.

A national team of 18 researchers has discovered 850 new species of invertebrates, which include various insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and many others.

The team – led by Professor Andy Austin (University of Adelaide), Dr Steve Cooper (South Australian Museum) and Dr Bill Humphreys (Western Australian Museum) – has conducted a comprehensive four-year survey of underground water, caves and micro-caverns across arid and semi-arid Australia.

Researchers Go Underground To Reveal 850 New Species In Australian Outback

Some of the 850 new species discovered in underground
water, caves and micro-caverns across outback Australia

Australian researchers have discovered a huge number of new species of invertebrate animals living in underground water, caves and "micro-caverns" amid the harsh conditions of the Australian outback.


A national team of 18 researchers has discovered 850 new species of invertebrates, which include various insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and many others.

The team – led by Professor Andy Austin (University of Adelaide), Dr Steve Cooper (South Australian Museum) and Dr Bill Humphreys (Western Australian Museum) – has conducted a comprehensive four-year survey of underground water, caves and micro-caverns across arid and semi-arid Australia.

"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 'back yard'," says Professor Austin from the Australian Center for Evolutionary Biology & Biodiversity at the University of Adelaide.

Great Tits eat bats in times of need

Common pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) are eaten
in winter by great tits (Parus major).

During harsh winters, Great Tits extend their menu options to include bats.

Necessity is the mother of invention: Great Tits eat hibernating common pipistrelle bats under harsh conditions of snow cover. This remarkable newly-acquired behaviour was observed by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and their colleagues in a cave in Hungary. When the researchers offered the birds alternative feed, they ate it and showed little or no interest in flying into the cave again. (Biology Letters, online prepublication from September 9, 2009).

Reports on the ingenuity of birds of the tit family in their search for food go as far back as the 1940s when it was observed that Blue Tits in the British Isles had learned how to open the aluminium tops of milk bottles left on doorsteps by milkmen to get at the cream that had formed on top of the milk. Another astonishing acquired behaviour among Great Tits (Parus major) has now been observed by the researchers working with Björn Siemers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and their Hungarian colleagues. On 21 observation days over two winters, Great Tits flew a total of 18 times into a cave in north-east Hungary to look for and eat the Common Pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) hibernating there. The researchers explain this behaviour with the extreme necessity they faced in their search for food. Great Tits eat insects or arachnids in summer and usually look for seeds and berries in winter. Winters in north-east Hungary can be very harsh, however, with closed snow cover.

Rincón Town Hall to expropriate the Cueva del Tesoro

The Sala de los Lagos in the Cueva del Tesoro

The only marine cave in Europe open to tourists is under private ownership

The Town Hall in Rincón de la Victoria has started the process to expropriate the town’s famous Cueva del Tesoro which, although managed by the council since 1991, Diario Sur reports, is in private ownership.

The Cueva del Tesoro is the only marine cave in Europe which is open to tourists and has been classified as a Cultural Asset since 1985. The Town Hall has a 30 year concession for its management, but now wants this natural monument to become municipal property.

There is however a vast difference in the three valuations of the 3,000 square metre area: the Laza family, which owns it, are asking 3.7 million €; a team of experts put its value at 350,000 €; and Town Hall technicians put its worth at a little below 100,000 €.

The Town Hall includes in its assessment the 11,500 € rent they must pay to the Laza family up until 2020 and the 24,000 € they have already spent on work to carry out improvements to the Cueva del Tesoro.

Source: Typically Spanish

In Memoriam: Maurizio Montalbini

Italian speleologist and sociologist Maurizio Montalbini
just after exiting the Grotta Fredda di Acquasanta cave
where he spent 236 days in total isolation, near Ascoli
Piceno, central Italy, Thursday, June 7, 2007

Maurizio Montalbini, who died on Saturday aged 56, was an Italian sociologist and part-time troglodyte who spent months at a time living in caves studying how the mind and body cope with total isolation; he held the world record for dwelling underground.

Since starting his experiments in the 1980s, Montalbini had spent a total of two years and eight months beneath the surface of the earth, according to a biography on his website.

In 1987 he claimed his first world record after spending 210 days alone in a cave in the Apennine mountains. A year later he led an international team of 14 cavers, including three women, to claim the world group record with an underground stay of 48 days.

During his endurance experiments Montalbini subsisted mostly on a high-calorie diet of powdered foods and pills similar to those used by astronauts on space flights. Scientists on the surface monitored him through instruments.

Montalbini's biography claimed his experiments were done in collaboration with Nasa and leading universities around the world. They yielded insights on the effects of long-term isolation, including weight loss, changes in the perception of time and in the sleep and menstrual cycles.

NOAA explorers Caves in Bermuda

The submerged entrance to Green Bay Cave (top center),
the longest known cave in Bermuda, is located at the end
of a small bay off Harrington Sound

The Green Bay Cave in Bermuda the longest known cave on the island and the target of a NOAA expedition running until September 30, 2009. Deep water marine caves represent one of the Earth's last largely unexplored frontiers of undiscovered fauna.

More than 150 limestone caves are known from the island of Bermuda, many of which have extensive, but relatively shallow submerged portions that connect to the sea via tidal springs along the coastline. These inland caves are inhabited by a number of diverse eyeless and colorless crustaceans and other invertebrates. Many of these organisms are “living fossils” and some are most closely related to deep-sea organisms, so a press release on NOAA’s ocean explorer website

The existence of ancient cave species and the fact that all known Bermuda caves were dry and air filled during Ice Age periods of lower sea level suggests that an alternate, now deep water cave habitat must have existed in Bermuda.

While previous investigations of marine caves have been limited to those within depths of up to 165 feet (50 meters), current research suggests that caves can occur at almost any depth within the sea. The geological history of Bermuda coupled with biological evidence indicates a strong possibility for the presence of deepwater caves near the island.

Archaeologists discover oldest-known fiber materials used by early humans

Flax fibers in microscopic soil samples (more than 34,000 years old)

A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered during systematic excavations in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, are described in this week's issue of Science.

The flax, which would have been collected from the wild and not farmed, could have been used to make linen and thread, the researchers say. The cloth and thread would then have been used to fashion garments for warmth, sew leather pieces, make cloths, or tie together packs that might have aided the mobility of our ancient ancestors from one camp to another.

The excavation was jointly led by Ofer Bar-Yosef, George Grant MacCurdy and Janet G. B. MacCurdy Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, with Tengiz Meshveliani from the Georgian State Museum and Anna Belfer-Cohen from the Hebrew University. The microscopic research of the soil samples in which numerous flax fibers were discovered was done by Eliso Kvavadze of the Institute of Paleobiology, part of the National Museum of Georgia.

Largest-ever collection of coins from Bar-Kokhba revolt found

Coins that were found in the cave.
(Credit: Sasson Tiram)

The largest cache of rare coins ever found in a scientific excavation from the period of the Bar-Kokhba revolt of the Jews against the Romans has been discovered in a cave by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University.

The coins were discovered in three batches in a deep cavern located in a nature reserve in the Judean hills. The treasure includes gold, silver and bronze coins, as well as some pottery and weapons.

The discovery was made in the framework of a comprehensive cave research and mapping project being carried out by Boaz Langford and Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Cave Research Unit in the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University, along with Dr. Boaz Zissu and Prof. Hanan Eshel of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, and with the support of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

The some 120 coins were discovered within a cave that has a "hidden wing," the slippery and dangerous approach to which is possible only via a narrow opening discovered many years ago by Dr. Gideon Mann, a physician who is one of the early cave explorers in modern Israel. The opening led to a small chamber which in turn opens into a hall that served as a hiding place for the Jewish fighters of Bar-Kokhba.