Monday, June 05, 2006

Quarry bingo

A 2.5 kilometers long Ayalon Cave, Israel's second largest known limestone cave is discovered by accident by quarry workers from Nesher Industries company. The underground chamber stretches some 330 feet (100 meters) deep, and could have been sealed off from the outside world for millions of years. Eight new invertebrate species are discovered there, four of which were crustaceans. Two of these crustacean species were possibly of saltwater origin, which may be due to events that occurred when what is now Israel was covered by Neotethys sea, about 200 million years ago.

From National Geographic