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  National Geographic 2 Jun 06
Prehistoric Cave Discovered; 8 New Species Thrive Inside
Mati Milstein in Ramle, Israel for National Geographic News

Yahoo News 1 Jun 06
Scientists discover 8 new species
by Aron Heller, Associated Press Writer

BBC 1 Jun 06
 Unknown creatures found in cave
Eight previously unknown invertebrate creatures have been discovered in an underwater cave in central Israel. The largest is a white shrimp-like crustacean. Another resembles a species of scorpion and is blind.

The cave was uncovered during drilling at a quarry close to Tel Aviv. Scientists say it is a unique ecosystem that has been sealed off from the world for five million years and could contain other ancient lifeforms.

"The uniqueness is of the environmental conditions and of the palaeohistory," said Dr Hanan Dimantman, a biologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "The result of this is that the ecosystem is unique. We are sure that the eight species that were found are only the beginning of the story of this ecosystem."

Ancient ecosystem

The cave is connected to a lake and a network of passageways that extend for more than a mile (1.6km) some 400ft (120m) underground. It is thought to date back millions of years to a time when the area was part of the Mediterranean Sea.

Scientists believe the ecosystem has been isolated since then, creating a unique environment in which new species have evolved.

Two of the crustaceans are adapted to seawater and two others live in fresh or brackish water, suggesting they may be descended from ancient sea creatures. They have lost their eyes over the course of evolution in the gloom of the cave.

All of the species were found alive, except for one species of blind scorpion, but scientists are confident that a complete set of living specimens will be found.

Samples have been sent to experts in Europe and Israel to be named and classified. Paul Pearce-Kelly, senior curator of invertebrates at London Zoo, said the organisms would give clues to how life can evolve in the absence of sunlight. "They can give a very good insight into how robust life, and the evolutionary process driving it, can be," he said.

Yahoo News 1 Jun 06
Scientists discover 8 new species
by Aron Heller, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Israeli scientists have discovered an ancient ecosystem containing eight previously unknown species in a lake inside a cave, where they were completely sheltered from the outside world for millions of years.

The newly discovered crustaceans and invertebrates were found last month in a cave near the city of Ramle in central Israel, team leader Amos Frumkin announced Thursday.

"This is a very unique ecosystem that is completely isolated from the surface," said Frumkin, a cave researcher in the geography department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The cave, located 328 feet below ground in a limestone quarry, includes tunnels that extend about a mile and a half. Inside, a large underground lake holds the previously unknown species, some similar to scorpions and shrimp.

Allen G. Collins, a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said the find "underscores how little we know about life on our planet and how important it is to keep looking." "I imagine this is a unique situation, to have a cave system with both marine and freshwater systems, and it is quite interesting in an underground situation," he said. "The scorpion-like creatures as well as the shrimp-like creatures that were found are unique."

The animals had been completely sheltered from the outside world by a thick layer of chalk that was impenetrable to water or exterior nutrients, Frumkin said. Aside from one scorpion-like creature, all other species discovered were found alive. None were more than two inches long.

Frumkin said similar caves have been discovered in Romania and Mexico, but none were as isolated. Unlike most animals, which depend on the photosynthesis food chain, the newly discovered species live off a completely independent and self-sustaining ecosystem.

Israel Naaman, Frumkin's research assistant, made the initial discovery. He had been conducting a survey of caves when he came across a small hole that just kept growing. "I thought it was just a small hole and I couldn't believe what I had found; surprise after surprise," he said.

When one of the volunteer staff crouched down to measure the temperature of the warm, sulfuric water he suddenly jumped up and yelled "there is something moving here."

Naaman acknowledged the species were likely endangered from oxygen exposure during the discovery process but said he was confident in the scientific importance of the find.

He said he believes further exploration will reveal additional new life forms.

The Israeli researchers have shared their findings with international experts for further review and classification and hope to publish their conclusions soon.

The limestone cave is believed to be the second-largest in Israel. In order to explore it, researchers had to climb ropes and crawl through most of it. Due to its scientific significance and the fact that it is located inside an active quarry, the cave is now closed to visitors.

National Geographic 2 Jun 06
Prehistoric Cave Discovered; 8 New Species Thrive Inside
Mati Milstein in Ramle, Israel for National Geographic News

Quarry workers digging recently in central Israel broke through bedrock and stumbled into an entirely new and unique ecosystem, scientists announced Wednesday. The cavern had been sealed off from the outside world for millions of years. When researchers entered the cave through a small passage, they found eight ancient animal species that had never been seen before.

At 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) long, the newly named Ayalon Cave is Israel's second largest known limestone cave. The underground chamber stretches some 330 feet (100 meters) deep, near the town of Ramle, not far from the city of Tel Aviv.

"The eight species found thus far are only the beginning" of what promises to be "a fantastic biodiversity," researcher Hanan Dimentman, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences said in a statement. Four of the new species are water-dwelling crustaceans. Four others are land-based invertebrates—creatures without spines. Also found in the cave were bacteria that serve as the basic food source in the self-contained community.

As might be expected of species confined to a pitch-black cavern for millions of years, none of the newly discovered animals had eyes. All were alive, except for a scorpion-like creature—the only known representative of its species. Unusually, two of the crustaceans found in the cave are saltwater species. The two others are of a type found in fresh or brackish (slightly salty) water.

Today's Mediterranean Sea is a remnant of the Neotethys ocean basin, which was formed during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods, about 200 million years ago. The current mix of freshwater and saltwater species in Ayalon Cave may be the result of events that occurred when what is now Israel was covered by that ancient sea. Specimens were sent to biologists in Israel and overseas for further analysis and precision dating.

Hebrew University geography professor Amos Frumkin, who was involved in the study, describes the cave as "unique in the world." The chamber is situated under a layer of chalk impenetrable to water and includes an underground lake that is part of one of Israel's two aquifers, vast underground water deposits embedded in rock, gravel, and sand.

The newfound lake, however, is different in temperature and chemical composition from the main waters of the aquifer.

Experts in cave ecology and evolution agree the discovery of Ayalon Cave is extremely significant. Francis Howarth is an entomologist and cave explorer with the Hawaii Biological Survey in Honolulu. Howarth says Ayalon Cave can supply researchers with a treasure chest of new data on evolutionary ecology and biodiversity.

"This discovery is exceptionally significant regionally," Howarth said. It indicates "that there must be similar systems in other deep aquifers in the Mideast. …"

New York University evolution expert David Fitch isn't sure how unique the Israeli discovery is. But he says the new findings may help fill in evolutionary blanks.

"There are many examples of cave ecosystems. Many of these caves, like other geographically isolated systems such as oceanic islands, have a high proportion of endemic species found nowhere else," Fitch said. "So the finding that there are several new species of invertebrates [in Ayalon Cave] is not really very novel," he said.

"However, there may be significance with regard to helping … fill in the branches of the 'tree of life'"—the history of evolutionary relationships among life-forms.

The researchers behind the new study say they hope to discover more species in the underground cave. Hebrew University's Dimentman believes they will find live scorpions and predator species higher up in the food chain.

Nesher Industries, the owners of the quarry under which the cave was discovered, says it will seek to preserve the ecosystem and the findings it contains. The cave is currently closed to the public as researchers continue their work.
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