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Pages
about the caves from
Ro man ia
and
my personal gallery
The
pages of friends from all over the world, go there to see what's hiding
in the caves from back home.
Visit
them:
©
Cristian Osan ASER 1999
the
page about caves from Caras-Severin, Romania, with some nice pictures.
Special, because there is the place where I'm coming. Thanks to
Cristian
"Fozzie" Osan for this one, please visit his galleries.
Romanian
Speleology
HomePage
go here to see and learn about
one unique cave in the world:
Movile Cave
a
page
by
Bogdan Onac
"...Ecology
When
Earth's climate changed 5.5 million years ago, the area went from being
tropical
to temperate. The only animals that
survived were those living in warm caves underground.
Movile
Cave, is one of Earth's most unusual ecosystems, populated with invertebrates
that have adapted -- through a process
called troglomorphy -- to their underground prison.
They have done this by:
Losing
pigmentation
Learning
to navigate blind
Surviving
on bacteria and fungi that derive energy from the sulfide hot springs
beneath
the cave.
The predatory leeches, rare water
scorpions, and other inhabitants of Movile Cave are similar
to species found in deep sea vent communities. They depend on chemoautotrophic
organisms (users of chemical energy)
instead of the more usual
photoautotrophic organisms (users of
photosynthetic energy).
Forty-six
species of terrestrial and
aquatic invertebrates have thus far
been identified to inhabit this ecosystem,
of which 31 are of a previously
unknown kind. The vast majority are anthropods belonging to the classes of
Arachnida, Crustacea,
Myriapoda, and Insecta. Eighteen aquatic
species in the cave belong to the phyla Plathelminthes
(flatworms), Nematoda (round worms), Rotifera (microscopic animals related
to round worms), Annelida (segmented worms), etc.
A
blind leech, a snail, and
a blind water-scorpion have also been
identified.
The
discoveries include grazers such as four species of isopods, or pillbugs, six
springtails,
a millipede, and a bristletail. Among the new species of carnivores are two
pseudoscorpions, a 2-inch-long
centipede, a worm-sucking leech, four spiders, and a water
scorpion..."
Read more and learn, from the original page, click anywhere on the text or
pictures to go there.
More
to come soon.
and
remember, if you ever have the occasion to see this magnificent creatures of
the nature, leave them where they belong.
follow the light, your journey
has just begun...
Write
some words, and if you want a link to your page added here, let me know.