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Nevada Scientists Discover New Scorpion Species

Nevada researchers have discovered a news species of tiny scorpions in Death Valley National Park.
Image Courtesy: Matt Graham
Nevada researchers have discovered a news species of tiny scorpions in Death Valley National Park.

http://kunr-assets.trinityannex.com/audios/726_scorpion-species.mp3

Two Nevada researchers working in Death Valley National Park have discovered a new species of scorpion. KUNR's Michael Hagerty has the story. In 2009, UNLV researchers Michael Webber and Matt Graham were digging through a pile of rocks in Death Valley National Park when they discovered a never-before-documented tiny scorpion measuring about two-thirds of an inch long, or about the width of a thumbnail. It took three years, but the researchers -- a pair of biology doctoral students specializing in scorpions -- conducted DNA tests and searched academic journals to see if the species had ever been documented among the world's nearly 2,000 known species of scorpions. It hadn't. They'd found a new species, which they named "wernerius inyoenis," after the Inyo Mountains where it was found. Their findings appear in the scientific journal ZooKeys.