Friday, January 29, 2010

Friday Troglobite

Troglobites are animals that live in caves, and generally, they rule. I'm going to attempt to post a picture of a new cool troglobite every Friday. Today's is a Psuedoscorpion discovered in an Australian cave. Psuedoscorpions are arachnids, and evolutionary cousins to the scorpions. Unlike scorpions, they deliver venom via their claws. To really see the the arachnid family (~class~) resemblance, you have to look at the jaws of Wind Spiders (Solifugae). I've posted a picture of one below.

New Psuedoscorpion, pretty scary for a 3.5 millimeter creature.


















Solifugae. The jaws of both arachnids are large and scissor-shaped.











Images from:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/09/new-troglobites/liittschwager-photography
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3326/3437390672_ce0b3817b6.jpg

1 comment:

  1. I like the idea of weekly troglobites... I'm looking forward to more of these. Also, that's a cool pseudoscorpion!

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