Unknown species found in isolated Israeli caves systems

Eight hitherto unknown species of invertebrate creatures isolated from the outside world for millions of years have been discovered in a unique subterranean ecosystem functioning in a cave in central Israel.

A team of scientists from Hebrew University said yesterday they had discovered the new species of crustaceans and scorpion-like animals in a cave uncovered during rock drilling at a cement quarry near Ramle.

The creatures include an omnivorous blind five-centimetre crustacean which the team have established as the highest in the food chain, capable of devouring other creatures as well as bacteria also found among what the scientists said were "exciting sediments" in the cave.

One of the team, Dr Hanan Dimentman said that the creature had three "relatives" in the Jordan Valley, and in the eastern Mediterranean off the coasts of southern Italy and Libya. But the team said that biomolecular analysis and DNA testing had already established that the crustacean and the other seven species were unique. The species are now being sent to experts in Europe and Israel for naming and classification

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