What do glaciers and scorpions have in common? They’re the focus of Javier Blasco-Aróstegui’s paper in which he and his coauthor describe a new species from the foothills of Mount Olympus. It’s an area home to many legends, and also a surprising amount of biodiversity due to its unique topography. When a large-scale change in habitat restricts gene flow, it can result in species that are very different from their relatives and Javier has found one of those species. “Okay,” he remembers saying about the first specimen, “we’ve got something new and cool here.”
Javier Blasco-Aróstegui’s paper “Glacial Relicts? A New Scorpion from Mount Olympus, Greece” is in the November 9th issue of American Museum Novitates.
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1206/4003.1
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Javier Blasco-Aróstegui - Transcript
New Species: Euscorpius olympus
Episode image courtesy of Javier Blasco-Aróstegui
Follow Javier on Instagram: @javierblar
Or on Twitter: @jblascoarosteg
Check out his ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Javier-Blasco-Arostegui
Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)
Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)
If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com
If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod