Variety of arthropods living in world's rain forests astonishing

[Judi Lynn]

Variety of arthropods living in world's rain forests astonishing

There are 300 of them for every mammal, huge new study in Panama discovers

By Douglas Main
OurAmazingPlanet
updated 12/13/2012 3:31:27 PM ET

It's well-known that the world's rain forests contain an enormous variety of arthropods, the group of animals that includes insects and spiders. But a new study shows that this variety is simply mind-blowing.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, estimates that a small region of tropical forest in Panama about the size of Manhattan contains 25,000 species of insects, spiders and other arthropods. That's more than four times the total of all known mammal species on Earth.

The study involved 102 researchers from 21 different countries who attacked every part of the rain forest in Panama to look for all types of arthropods. They sifted through soil, leaf litter, dug into tree bark and rotting wood and climbed into the forest's massive canopy using ropes and cranes. It's the first study to sample arthropods from every part of a tropical rain forest.

Up to 70 percent of the creatures collected in the survey belong to new, unidentified species, said Frode Odegaard, a co-author and researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research in a teleconference.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50190122/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[2on2u]

1. Six legs good, eight legs bad, that's how I see it. n/t