A mysterious creature that scientists found in a cave at a depth of 1.5 km (5 photos)

This is a creature that, without any stretch, can be called chthonic, that is, born from the bowels of the earth. After all, in order to discover it, scientists had to dive underground a good one and a half kilometers!





An expedition of scientists managed to descend into the Lukina Yama cave, which is located in Croatia, to a depth of one thousand four hundred and thirty-one meters, where they discovered an underground stream and a small pond.

To the surprise of scientists, the pond was inhabited by strange-looking creatures, unlike other species known to science.



After studying the collected samples, scientists identified the creatures. They turned out to be leeches, but of a strange appearance with eight pairs of limbs. At first, a separate genus was created for them, but after a detailed study of anatomy and DNA, they found out that the new species belongs to an already known genus and assigned it a scientific name - Erpobdella mestrovi.





Like all leeches, this one moved like a caterpillar - by the "flexion-extension" method, using two suckers - the tail and the mouth.

And what biologists mistook for limbs actually turned out to be auxiliary gills, which is generally unusual, since, judging by the strength of the suckers and the shape of the body, the organisms are adapted to live in conditions of strong currents. And in a strong current there should be enough oxygen.



In addition to rigid limbs, leeches have a unique mouth structure: it is closed on four pairs of triangular tentacles, each of which has five suction cups, which is an adaptation to strong currents, since when moving, the leech uses its mouth as a suction cup.

Even more interesting, from whom should she drink blood? After all, in her native dungeon there are no animals with blood. True, after its genus was determined, the question disappeared, since all species of the genus Erpobdella are not blood-sucking, but are active predators. But this raises another question: “Who are they hunting?” Let's hope science will provide an answer to this as well.