[HN Gopher] The bizarre beasts living in Romania's poison cave (...
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       The bizarre beasts living in Romania's poison cave (2015)
        
       Author : EndXA
       Score  : 109 points
       Date   : 2021-03-06 17:07 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
        
       | montalbano wrote:
       | The BBC site wasn't working for me either, found this one which
       | has incredible pictures:
       | 
       | https://geoera.eu/blog/movile-cave-romania/
        
         | quakeguy wrote:
         | I found a documentary
         | 
         | https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/pl...
        
         | cozzyd wrote:
         | I guess since (most of?) the creatures don't have eyes, it's
         | easy to photograph them? Looks like the place of nightmares.
        
           | OneLeggedCat wrote:
           | The water scorpion there particularly interests me. In the
           | rest of the world, those are active, sight-oriented
           | predators, and the one in this cave still seems to have large
           | eyes.
        
       | ksaj wrote:
       | This also reminds me of Cuatro Cienegas Basin in Mexico. It is
       | studied because its life forms are directly connected to the
       | Oxygenation period our Earth went through. Below the surface,
       | there are a lot of creatures that cannot exist anywhere else
       | (that we know of) on Earth, and that thrive in this environment
       | that would kill just about any other life form. They are
       | considered some of the most primitive oligotrophic life we know
       | of still around today.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuatro_Ci%C3%A9negas#Cuatro_Ci...
        
       | galangalalgol wrote:
       | It mentions temperatures of 25C as a hardship to endure. Is the
       | author unfamiliar with celsius? Or from somewhere very chilly?
        
       | SllX wrote:
       | This almost sounds like a naturally occurring poison jar, except
       | there isn't one survivor left, but a whole entire separate
       | ecosystem forming a food pyramid rebased on top of autotrophs.
       | 
       | Which is to say, this is really damn cool.
        
         | waynecochran wrote:
         | Ian Malcolm "Life will find a way"
        
           | Demigod33 wrote:
           | At least at that place. Imagine all the other places which
           | perished due to various reasons. A numbers game.
        
       | liquidify wrote:
       | I loved this article.
        
       | adaisadais wrote:
       | I recall hearing about this when it was first published. It
       | fascinates me to no end that the more we learn about our own
       | planet the less it seems we truly understand about the complexity
       | and beauty that we are amongst.
       | 
       | "That's a pair of them docks" - Bon Iver #paradox
        
       | unnouinceput wrote:
       | I get "The page isn't redirecting properly" therefore:
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20161004233838/http://www.bbc.co...
        
         | contravariant wrote:
         | It's working for me though it somehow doesn't seem to have a
         | https version (even though www.bbc.co.uk itself _does_ have
         | one) which is a bit odd.
        
           | gpvos wrote:
           | No https version, and I got a text-only page with a very
           | small font, on which I had to click for the images. I guess
           | it's a way of degrading somewhat gracefully...
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-06 23:00 UTC)