It comes from a stable home. Well, at least for the last 700,000 years. So actually it missed that Ice Age.
Incredible observation, incredible story.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-64377367
If you have problems with that, here’s the story without the video (some pics):
https://www.wcscanada.org/Latest-News/ID/18625/A-tiny-natural-treasure-buried-deep-beneath-a-mountain.aspx
Fascinating.
A even more extreme example is the fascinating troglofauna from the Movile Cave in Romania:
The cave can only be entered by diving though toxic hydrogen sulfide rich water and is completely sealed off from the normal atmosphere since millions of years. Around 57 different species have evolved in this cave and are completely isolated since more that 5.5 million years. They live in a unique atmosphere and are completely dependent on chemosynthetic bacteria that live on the water surface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movile_Cave
The Chemoautotrophically Based Movile Cave Groundwater Ecosystem, a Hotspot of Subterranean Biodiversity: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/13/3/128
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neogene
Videos:
What is written there?
I just added an alternative link to the story from the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada’s website.
Thank you for the link with text. The picture seems to be wrong however. I think it probably shows the isopod Salmasellus steganothrix instead of the Castleguard Cave amphipod.
You’re right! It doesn’t look at all like the creature that was scurrying around in the video version.
You would THINK that these guys would have spotted that one. Thanks!
Holy moly! Wow. Thanks for that story!
These are the kind of stories that make me wonder why there’s so much focus on humans getting ‘out there’ as in finding a new home in space. Sometimes it seems that we are only just beginning to understand a fraction of the complex wonders right where we all are NOW.
I wonder about that myself. As beautiful as a starry sky is at night, it is cold and dark and barren. I would rather be down here looking up at it than up there looking down at earth. I had a hard enough time in the Navy, spending so much time below decks among the hard steel and cables. At least then, I could go topside into the open air and have a chance at seeing some nonhuman life now and them. You can’t go topside in a starship.
As often as I come across observations misidentified as something that looks only vaguely similar, I’m not sure that I would think that. Maybe people dream of going into space because they aren’t aware of how much excitement and beauty earth has to offer.