Science News Daily

World's deepest land animal discovered

Over a mile beneath the Earth?s surface in the pitch black depths of the world?s deepest cave, a team of Spanish and Portuguese scientists have discovered several new species of animals, one of which they are describing as the deepest terrestrial animal known to man. The tiny arthropod, already dubbed with the Latin name Plutomurus ortobalaganensis, is one of four newly discovered species of wingless arthropods known to entomologists as springtails. Part of a subclass of arthropods known as Collembola, the little animals are usually less than 6 mm in length and often found in total darkness, obtaining nutrients from decaying organic matter. The fossil record of springtails reaches back some 400 million years to the Early Devonian period, making them one of the most ancient species of extant arthropods on the planet. The creatures were discovered during the Ibero-Russian CaveX team expedition to the world?s deepest known cave Krubera-Voronja in the mountains of Western Caucasus. Located on the Black Sea in the

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