Located in west central California, west of Death Valley National Park and east of Fresno, is Sequoia National Park. Recent discoveries in the caves found within this national park have revealed up to 30 new species of animals, spanning families such as scorpions, insects, spiders, as well as never-before-seen varieties of centipedes. The caves in which these new animals were discovered are dark, very humid caves that lie beneath the national park and its neighbor known as Canyon National Park, in the Sierra Nevada region.
Cave specialist Joel Despain, who has explored and worked in at least 30 of the 238 known caves beneath the national parks, noted that not only are these species new and undocumented to science, but they display attributes not so far observed in other animals. An example of this is that some of these new animals had adapted and evolved in specific ways to their immediate environment, and that immediate environment was often as small as a single room in a cave. Thus, a spider in one room of the cave being explored could be completely different than a spider in the next room, as determined by the environments found in each room, even though they exist side by side. .
Some examples of this new and strange life are the discovery of a species very similar to the Pill Bug, however, with a translucent skin that allows you to see inside. In this particular specimen, the liver is found to be a long bright yellow line. As well as that of a spider, very similar to our well-known Daddy Long Legs spider, which had an oversized jaw, much larger than the size of its own body. A brilliantly bright orange spider was also found nearby.
Darrell Ubick, a San Fransisco cave specialist, says: “Many people will watch them trying to figure out where they fit on the tree of life. While it’s extremely rare to find new species of mammals or birds on the surface, caves still contain a wealth of secrets. Like the depths of the sea, they are often elusive and rarely explored.”
Jean Krejca, an Austin, Texas-based consulting biologist with Zara Environmental who helped lead the three-year exploration, said: “You get the feeling that you’re Lewis and Clark, charting uncharted territory,” she said. “Caves are one of the last frontiers.”
Joel Despain goes on to explain that park officials plan to take steps to protect the caves. Joel then explains that most of them are not accessible to the public and can only be visited by experienced researchers or explorers with permits.
So far, the species have not been scientifically described, given names, or given a place among the current tree of living species. The reasons for this, said Jean Krejca, are many, such as “The fact that we don’t know how long they live, what kind of habitat they prefer, how many young they have, or how sensitive they are to human disturbance, are just a few. There are still much to learn.”