"What on Earth? is a compendium of the hundred coolest, weirdest, and most intriguing new species of this century as determined by the International Institute for Species Exploration. From animals to plants, fossils to bacteria, What on Earth? is an accessible, informative, and offbeat look at the creatures that also call our planet home.
Featuring visually striking images alongside surprising facts about each new species, What on Earth? is a testament to the incredible and ever-evolving diversity of our planet.

The giant cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion from caves of Portugal - Titanobochica magna Zaragoza & Reboleira, 2010 - was selected as one of the 100 amazing new species of Earth. This incredible pseudoscorpion is featured as the first species of the 8th Chapter: Going to Extremes - new species from the most extreme environments.


Reference:
Wheeler Q. & Pennak S. (2013). What on Earth?: 100 of Our Planet's Most Amazing New Species. Penguin Books, 276 pp.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
QUENTIN WHEELER and SARA PENNAK are both professors at Arizona State University and work at the International Institute for Species Exploration.

Abstract
Karst systems harbor large groundwater resources for human consumption and represent an important habitat for rare and unprotected specialized animals, the so-called stygofauna. Due to the highly adapted features towards underground life, together with the geographic isolation provided by the subterranean aquifers, groundwater-dwelling animals may lose the ability to face sudden changes on their ecosystems, and therefore the risk of extinction is remarkably high. A little is known about their sensitiveness, especially linked to contamination pressure in urbanized karst areas. Understanding the impact of contaminants on stygofauna is important for setting groundwater environmental quality and management of karst systems. We have investigated acute toxicity responses in two endemic stygobiont species of the peri-Mediterranean genus Proasellusfrom two different karst areas and in freshwater standard species Daphnia magna exposed to two contaminants (copper sulfate; potassium dichromate). Groundwater from both sites was characterized in order to depict possible responses resulting from the long-term exposition of organisms to contaminants. Stygobiont Proasellus spp. were remarkably more tolerant than the epigean D. magna. The less groundwater-adapted revealed to be more tolerant to acute exposure to both toxics, suggesting that the degree of adaptation to groundwater life can influence the acute response of Proasellus spp. to pollutants, and that the tolerance to wide environmental conditions could be a key factor in groundwater colonization. This study highlights the worldwide need to use local specimens to infer the effects of pollution in their corresponding karst systems, which is important to define specific environmental quality thresholds for groundwater ecosystems that will certainly contribute for its protection.


Reference:
Reboleira A.S.P.S., Abrantes N.A., Oromí P. & Gonçalves F. (2013). Acute toxicity of copper sulfate and potassium dichromate on stygobiont Proasellus: general aspects of groundwater ecotoxicology and future perspectives. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 224(5): 1550. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1550-0.