Post by Karstscience on May 19, 2006 17:22:30 GMT -5
Article Preview New Scientists Magazine issue 2552
The word: Troglobyte
May 19, 2006
In 17th-century Slovenia, people didn't just believe in dragons, they new they existed because they had seen their young…
IN 17th-century Slovenia, people didn't just believe in dragons, they knew they existed. How? Because every now and then, heavy rains would flush a dragon's young from its subterranean lair out into the light. The creatures washed from Slovenia's limestone caves looked like strange snakes with legs, oddly pale and lacking eyes. What could they be but dragon larvae?
Later, when explorers began to probe the region's underground caverns and passages, they failed to find any fire-breathing monsters. They did, however, discover blind, white salamanders. Confined to caves, the amphibians had evolved into giants some 30 centimetres long that lived for a hundred years. Not dragons, then, but troglobytes.
In the vocabulary of the cave biologist, troglobytes are cave-dwelling creatures that spend their entire lives below ground. Unlike troglophiles, which are happy to live in caves but aren't obliged to, or trogloxenes - part-timers such as bats, swallows and crickets ...
www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19025522.400-the-word-troglobyte.html
The word: Troglobyte
May 19, 2006
In 17th-century Slovenia, people didn't just believe in dragons, they new they existed because they had seen their young…
IN 17th-century Slovenia, people didn't just believe in dragons, they knew they existed. How? Because every now and then, heavy rains would flush a dragon's young from its subterranean lair out into the light. The creatures washed from Slovenia's limestone caves looked like strange snakes with legs, oddly pale and lacking eyes. What could they be but dragon larvae?
Later, when explorers began to probe the region's underground caverns and passages, they failed to find any fire-breathing monsters. They did, however, discover blind, white salamanders. Confined to caves, the amphibians had evolved into giants some 30 centimetres long that lived for a hundred years. Not dragons, then, but troglobytes.
In the vocabulary of the cave biologist, troglobytes are cave-dwelling creatures that spend their entire lives below ground. Unlike troglophiles, which are happy to live in caves but aren't obliged to, or trogloxenes - part-timers such as bats, swallows and crickets ...
www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19025522.400-the-word-troglobyte.html
