Some scientists are all kinds of excited about a new find. it seems that I. plenipes has again been spotted in a remote area of California. First spotted in 1926, the species has eluded capture ever since, apparently. The scientists are pushing to have the land where they were found protected.
"This is a milestone find," said Richard Hoffman, a millipede expert at the Virginia Museum of Natural History who had no connection with the discovery.
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It remained elusive until a 28-year-old scientist from East Carolina University, Paul Marek, and his brother chanced upon it last fall.
"I practically fell over when I found it. It was extremely exhilarating," said Marek, who published the discovery in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
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"By rediscovering it, we add more pieces of the puzzle to understanding it," (said Darrell Ubick, an entomologist with the San Francisco-based California Academy of Sciences)
Are these folks all het up or what?
We haven't got the heart to tell them what we would do if we discovered an example of I. plenipes anywhere near us. Because they'd likely cry. We'd step on it quickly.
We don't get all excited by millipedes. More like instant revulsion.
Scientists can be so odd.
