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A new type of poisonous centipede, discovered by scientists, where they called it “the king of the cave”, and lives in the most isolated ecosystem in the world.
The team found the creature in the Movile Cave in Romania, a unique underground ecosystem isolated millions of years ago from the Neogene Era.
Scientists from Austria, Bulgaria and Finland studied the arthropods found in the cave after they were collected by explorers Serban Sarbo and Alexandra Maria Hillebrand.
As the largest inhabitant of the Mauvel sulfur cave, the newly discovered species can easily be crowned the “king” of this “hellish” ecosystem.
The team believes that the centipede, named Cryptops speleorex, evolved from a nearby rooftop dwelling over millions of years to deal with the darkness of the cave.
It is believed that this new type of arthropod centipede never saw the light of day and lived in a very unique environment, where oxygen in the air may be half the amount we are used to, only about 10%, but it contains much sulfur.
The underground ecosystem is full of rare and unknown species that feed on millions of chemosynthetic bacteria that line the cave wall, which in turn feed on carbon dioxide and methane.
It seems that this infernal ecosystem, where breathing without breathing equipment, can prove fatal for most of us, crowned the discovered species as “yours”.
Cryptops speleorex is between 4.6 and 5.2 cm long and is the largest cave dweller known to date. The new species discovered is described in the magazine ZooKeys.
🔝#New species of #centipede is the largest inhabitant of the singular, sulfur #ecosystem of the Movile cave (Romania). Situated at the top of the food chain, the species was aptly named C. speleorex – the King of the Cave.
🧐More: https://t.co/H4QSeE11ez #Biodiversity pic.twitter.com/Dl31DjRV40
– ZooKeys (@ZooKeys_Journal) December 17, 2020
Notably, the location of Mövel Cave, isolated from the outside world since the Neogene era, has drawn the attention of scientists since its unexpected discovery in 1986 by workers searching for suitable sites to build a power station in the southeast from Romania.
Surprisingly, despite the harsh living conditions, diverse and unique animals are found in the mobile ecosystem. So far, the cave is known to provide habitat for the troglobiont water scorpion, cave fish leeches, some species of spiders, and certainly many others that have yet to be discovered.
Scientists say the centipede is “a predator to a large extent, and the largest previously described animal in this cave, and that’s why we decided to call it Cryptops speleorex, which can be translated to the king of the cave,” according to “Science Daily.
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