Incredible predator discovery inside remote Aussie island cave with no public access
Samples of the tiny animals were first collected 35 years ago and then placed in a vault at the Western Australian Museum, but they were not officially described until this month. Like all pseudoscorpions, they superficially resemble scorpions, but they lack an elongated tail with a stinger, and instead attack using venom glands in their long, pincer-like fingers.
Dr Mark Harvey co-authored a description of this new species, Anatemnus capillatus, in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy. No one has ever seen it alive in its natural environment, but clues to its behaviour can be found by studying similar species.
'All pseudoscorpions are predators… They walk around sensing their environment with specialised hairs, and as soon as they find prey, they'll grip it and inject venom into it so it quickly dies. Then they'll suck all the fluids out of it, which is the standard way arachnids feed,' Harvey told Yahoo News Australia.
Incredible facts about Barrow Island
There is no public access to Barrow Island as it is listed as a Class A Nature Reserve.
It is home to 24 species and subspecies found nowhere else on Earth.
Barrow Island is home to Boodie Cave, which is one of Australia's oldest archaeological sites and contains evidence of humans from 46,200 to 51,100 years ago.
US energy giant Chevron was permitted to build its $54 billion Greater Gorgon gas extraction project on the island.
How pseudoscorpions evolved inside caves
The newly discovered Anatemnus capillatus are just two to three millimetres long, making them an average-sized pseudoscorpion. It was one of two new species described by the team at the Western Australian Museum. The other, Anatemnus eminus, was collected from multiple underground locations back on the mainland of the Pilbara in 2015 and 2018.
The Pilbara was once covered in temperate forests, but just over two million years ago, they began to dry out into the deserts we see today. Animals that inhabited these landscapes either died off or changed.
As the region became arid, the pseudoscorpions moved underground, and they evolved to look markedly different from their forest-dwelling cousins. Both newly described species are pale in colour and have long appendages to help them navigate their moist, dark environment.
'There's absolutely no light down there whatsoever, so they're just feeling around, sensing prey, and trying not to be eaten themselves,' Harvey said.
Incredible and 'rare' phenomenon on rugged Aussie beach vanishes within 24 hours
Signs of million-year-old ancient humans found on Australia's doorstep
Solution to Great Barrier Reef problem as new report released
Noting the pseudoscorpions were collected 'half a lifetime ago', Harvey concedes it can be a 'slow task' to describe a new species. He estimates there are 4,000 species of subterranean invertebrates living across the Pilbara, but only around a quarter have been described.
'Places like the Western Australian Museum have thousands of undescribed species of invertebrates sitting on shelves, and it's just a matter of prioritising which ones we work on,' he said.
Harvey is a Western Australian Museum associate and is its former Head of Terrestrial Zoology.
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Incredible predator discovery inside remote Aussie island cave with no public access
Deep in a cave on an island off Australia's remote Pilbara, a venomous arachnid has quietly evolved over millions of years to attack and kill prey in the dark. The creatures are a type of pseudoscorpion that was previously unknown to science and have only been found in one place on Barrow Island. Samples of the tiny animals were first collected 35 years ago and then placed in a vault at the Western Australian Museum, but they were not officially described until this month. Like all pseudoscorpions, they superficially resemble scorpions, but they lack an elongated tail with a stinger, and instead attack using venom glands in their long, pincer-like fingers. Dr Mark Harvey co-authored a description of this new species, Anatemnus capillatus, in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy. No one has ever seen it alive in its natural environment, but clues to its behaviour can be found by studying similar species. 'All pseudoscorpions are predators… They walk around sensing their environment with specialised hairs, and as soon as they find prey, they'll grip it and inject venom into it so it quickly dies. Then they'll suck all the fluids out of it, which is the standard way arachnids feed,' Harvey told Yahoo News Australia. Incredible facts about Barrow Island There is no public access to Barrow Island as it is listed as a Class A Nature Reserve. It is home to 24 species and subspecies found nowhere else on Earth. Barrow Island is home to Boodie Cave, which is one of Australia's oldest archaeological sites and contains evidence of humans from 46,200 to 51,100 years ago. US energy giant Chevron was permitted to build its $54 billion Greater Gorgon gas extraction project on the island. How pseudoscorpions evolved inside caves The newly discovered Anatemnus capillatus are just two to three millimetres long, making them an average-sized pseudoscorpion. It was one of two new species described by the team at the Western Australian Museum. The other, Anatemnus eminus, was collected from multiple underground locations back on the mainland of the Pilbara in 2015 and 2018. The Pilbara was once covered in temperate forests, but just over two million years ago, they began to dry out into the deserts we see today. Animals that inhabited these landscapes either died off or changed. As the region became arid, the pseudoscorpions moved underground, and they evolved to look markedly different from their forest-dwelling cousins. Both newly described species are pale in colour and have long appendages to help them navigate their moist, dark environment. 'There's absolutely no light down there whatsoever, so they're just feeling around, sensing prey, and trying not to be eaten themselves,' Harvey said. Incredible and 'rare' phenomenon on rugged Aussie beach vanishes within 24 hours Signs of million-year-old ancient humans found on Australia's doorstep Solution to Great Barrier Reef problem as new report released Noting the pseudoscorpions were collected 'half a lifetime ago', Harvey concedes it can be a 'slow task' to describe a new species. He estimates there are 4,000 species of subterranean invertebrates living across the Pilbara, but only around a quarter have been described. 'Places like the Western Australian Museum have thousands of undescribed species of invertebrates sitting on shelves, and it's just a matter of prioritising which ones we work on,' he said. Harvey is a Western Australian Museum associate and is its former Head of Terrestrial Zoology. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
A Scientist Says He's Solved the Bermuda Triangle, Just Like That
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: An Australian scientist says probabilities are the leading cause of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. And he's not the only one. Add in suspect weather, and iffy plane and boat piloting, and Karl Kruszelnicki believes there's no reason to believe in the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. While the conspiracy of the Bermuda Triangle has existed for decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and Lloyd's of London has long championed the same ideas. Pick any one of the more than 50 ships or 20 planes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in the last century. Each one has a story without an ending, leading to a litany of conspiracy theories about the disappearances in the area, marked roughly by Florida, Bermuda, and the Greater Antilles. Australian scientist Karl Kruszelnicki doesn't subscribe to the Bermuda Triangle's supernatural reputation. Neither does the United States' own National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Both have been saying for years that there's really no Bermuda Triangle mystery. In fact, the loss and disappearance of ships and planes is a mere fact of probabilities. 'There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean,' NOAA wrote in 2010. And since 2017, Kruszelnicki has been saying the same thing. He told The Independent that the transparent volume of traffic—in a tricky area to navigate, no less—shows 'the number [of ships and planes] that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis.' He says that both Lloyd's of London and the U.S. Coast Guard support that idea. In fact, as The Independent notes, Lloyd's of London has had this same theory since the 1970s. NOAA says environmental considerations can explain away most of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances, highlighting the Gulf Stream's tendency towards violent changes in weather, the number of islands in the Caribbean Sea offering a complicated navigation adventure, and evidence that suggests the Bermuda Triangle may cause a magnetic compass to point to true north instead of magnetic north, causing for confusion in wayfinding. 'The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard contend that there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea,' NOAA says. 'Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction.' Kruszelnicki has routinely garnered public attention for espousing these very thoughts on the Bermuda Triangle, first in 2017 and then again in 2022 before resurfacing once more in 2023. Throughout it all, he's stuck to the same idea: the numbers don't lie. Even with some high-profile disappearances—such as Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers lost in 1945—pushing the theory into popular culture, Kruszelnicki points out that every instance contains a degree of poor weather or likely human error (or both, as in the case of Flight 19) as the true culprit. But culture clings to Bermuda Triangle conspiracy theories. The concepts of sea monsters, aliens, and even the entirety of Atlantis dropping to the ocean floor—those are fodder for books, television, and movies. It sure does sound more exciting than poor weather and mathematical probabilities, anyway, even if the 'boring' story holds more water. Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the IssueGet the Issue Get the Issue You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Incredible and 'rare' phenomenon on quiet Aussie beach vanishes within 24 hours
A dog walker strolling along a rugged Australian beach was 'amazed' to stumble across a sprawling natural phenomenon few people are lucky enough to witness. While Sybil Jethro thought the formation resembled ancient stalactites, which grow slowly at 10cm every thousand years, experts believe the strange sand flow she photographed likely materialised in milliseconds. Sybil spotted the gnarled shapes in the sand on Sunday morning at Ocean Beach, a wild 37km stretch of sand on Tasmania's west coast. They were just two metres from the water's edge, and directly below a bank of mud or peat. 'I'd say it was as big as a couple of tables, big eight-seater dining room-sized,' she told Yahoo News Australia. 'I couldn't quite work them out. They were close to the water line, so I'm pretty sure the next high tide will just wash them away.' Related: 🦀 Incredible sand formations created by sand bubbler crabs How were the sand formations created? The formations in her pictures have been described as resembling seaweed, tongues, and even caterpillars. But Professor Patrick Hesp, an expert in coastal geomorphology at Flinders University, has settled on the description of 'tongues'. He explained it's 'rare' to see formations as large as these. They form quickly during a sudden inundation of water onto the sand and are quickly destroyed by the tides or more rain. When a bed of sand is suddenly soaked with water, it can form dozens of these long, flowing 'tongues' which then move down the hillside. Professor Hesp compares them to debris flows that occur after heavy water flows turn loose soil, rock and organic matter into a slurry, but in this case, they're much smaller. Their lifespan is short because as they move over sand that's less wet, the moisture sinks below, drying out the tongue above. 'People don't think sand dunes have much water influence, but at times, you get quite significant sheet wash. This means the water is flowing across the surface and washing a fan of sand down,' Professor Hesp explained. 'But on occasions it's more localised, and it produces these saturated flows that just lose all their water suddenly and stop in place.' Replacements form after 'tongues' vanish After returning to Ocean Beach on Monday morning, the original sand tongue Sybil photographed was gone. Signs of million-year-old ancient humans found on Australia's doorstep Solution to Great Barrier Reef problem as new report released Toxic chemicals in simple household items pose worrying 'threat' But already there were new ones forming along the coastline. Although they aren't as intricate as her weekend find, her images help illustrate how these incredible structures form. With her dog sitting on the sand for scale, you can see large globs of sand rolling down the bank. Incredibly, the sand tongues were just 1.5km from where Sybil photographed a rare oarfish in June, also known as a "doomsday fish". While its discovery created national media attention, she was likely the only person to witness the intact fish before it was torn apart by scavenging birds. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
