5.5 million years ago A. cave Located in Romania, it was completely isolated from the world after a large rock fell, blocking its entrance.. Despite this and the poisonous air inside making the area theoretically uninhabitable, an interesting ecosystem eventually developed with many completely different life forms. Just a few decades ago, people entered the Movile Cave for the first time and discovered a magnificent world.
Located just a few miles west of the Black Sea in Romania Movile Cave was first discovered by humans in 1986. A group of workers are looking for land to build a nuclear power plant. Today, access to the area is blocked by authorities and can only be accessed with special permission, although the central caves are naturally “protected” by a series of vertical shafts and narrow limestone tunnels.
When we reached the depths of the cave, The air contains less than half the amount of oxygen found in open air and is filled with high levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.. Moreover, it is completely dark inside and has not seen a single ray of sunlight for millions of years.
Thanks to this cocktail of extreme conditions, the place has proven to be a gold mine for biologists. One of the first attempts to document this strange ecosystem can be found in a paper written by three biologists from the University of Cincinnati (USA) and published in 1996. Science. Later new studies confirmed the extraordinary nature of this ecosystem, which literally seems from another world.
Scorpions, spiders, snails and other never-before-seen species
And life seems to be evolving rapidly in this hostile environment. Already in the study in 1996, Three scientists identified 48 species, 33 of which are completely unique to this cave. In later studies, spiders, scorpions, mealybugs, centipedes, as well as leeches, snails and many other species were found.
Most tiny cave creatures have no vision and no pigment. But who really needs to see in pitch darkness? They are also a generally slender group with very long limbs and antennae that help them navigate in the dark.
According to microbiologist J. Colin Murrell from the University of East Anglia, the most normal thing is that the bacteria in the cave were already living in the cave long before it was isolated. When the limestone soil collapsed and closed the cave, the rest of the insects must have fallen and became trapped. Later, invertebrates adapted to this underground habitat by reproducing without sunlight until today.. The cave covers an area of approximately 100 square kilometers, most of which is inaccessible.
As if this cave wasn’t weird enough, It was the first discovered terrestrial ecosystem based on chemosynthetic bacteria.. Most ecosystems require photosynthesis to obtain energy from sunlight. However, since there is no natural light in the cave, the bacteria must obtain their energy and carbon directly from chemical reactions such as sulfur oxidation or ammonium oxidation.
Where did the food come from?
Analysis of the lake water showed that no food particles were visible. “So the real question was: Where does the food come from to feed all these creatures? The food comes from a foamy film found above the lake water and on the cave walls. This film is like toilet paper and can even tear like a piece of toilet paper. “It’s full of billions of bacterial autotrophs,” said microbiologist Rich Boden of the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, at the time of its discovery.
The cave ecosystem was entirely dependent on these chemosynthetic bacteria. They can extract carbon without needing sunlight, and while most bacteria use carbon dioxide, others get their carbon from methane. The bacterial film on lake water and cave walls is where all nutrients enter the cave ecosystem and is the only known example of such a system. The life cycle can continue with small creatures eating the slime and large creatures eating the small ones.
“These bacteria, just like plants, get their carbon from carbon dioxide,” says Boden. “The carbon dioxide level in the cave is approximately 100 times higher than normal air. However, unlike plants, they cannot use photosynthesis because there is no light.”
A window to the past
The unique ecosystem and creatures of the Mobile Cave are perhaps Could help us understand what life was like in the planet’s primitive pastIt also gives us some clues about combating greenhouse gases. In our early Earth, sunlight was blocked by an atmospheric soup containing carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia. It is possible that the first living cells were similar to those found in the cave.
further The ability of cave bacteria to oxidize methane and decompose carbon dioxide, both greenhouse gases, is impressive. It is important in the current process of climate change. The researchers believe that it would be really interesting to discover how these bacteria manage to oxidize or decompose these two gases in our atmosphere, with the aim of developing a technology that could decompose them to more acceptable levels than current levels.
Many mysteries still lie deep within the Moving Cave. Despite knowing about its existence for decades, researchers believe there are still many more residents waiting to be discovered; some of these may have insights into evolutionary biology and even the nature of life.
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