Scientists Discover New Venomous Species Lurking in the Desert

Scientists discovered a new venomous species hunting for prey in the San Joaquin Desert in California during a yearlong research initiative.

More than two dozen Tulare Basin scorpions were found by researchers during their investigation. The research began in 2021 after a photo of the mysterious scorpion appeared on iNaturalist, a social network that consists of citizen-scientists and others, in 2020. California Academy for Sciences researchers then scoured salt flats in the San Joaquin Desert and searched for the previously unidentified species between 2021 and 2022. They published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys on November 29.

During their search, scientists found 29 scorpions matching the description of the iNaturalist photo—they all had eight legs, a “smooth” body, two “heavily scalloped pincers”, and an orange-yellow body with dark brown markings, according to the study. Scientists named the new species the Tulare Basin scorpion.

Lauren Esposito, assistant curator for California Academy for Sciences and the study’s co-author, wrote that the scorpion was venomous, although it wasn’t harmful to humans.

Newsweek reached out to California Academy for Sciences by email for comment.

The Tulare Basin scorpion is a new species discovered by scientists. Their findings were published in a November 29 research study.
Prakrit Jain, Harper Forbes, Jacob A. Gorneau, Lauren A. Esposito

Meanwhile, the Tulare Basin scorpion faces a “number of imminent threats to its survival,” with most of them being “anthropogenic in nature,” or originating in human activity, the study said.

One such threat came from nearby cattle grazing, which has damaged the scorpions environment.

“The most important step towards the conservation of [the Tulare Basin scorpion] is the preservation of alkali-sink plant communities by protecting the remaining high-quality habitat, controlling invasive species, limiting cattle grazing, restoring abandoned land, and combating the causes and effects of climate change,” the study said. “Furthermore, due to its small and unstable range, we suggest that this species receive endangered or critically endangered species status, at least at the state level, so that it can be adequately protected.”

Species have gone extinct at a much higher rate than is expected with evolution, with blame being largely placed on humans and their detrimental impact on certain species’ environments. Experts believe that the modern extinction rate is as much as 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, according to The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), making for a dim outlook.

Some companies are conducting extensive research on how to bring certain species back to life. In the meantime, rediscovering a species previously thought to be extinct or a new species altogether like the Tulare Basin scorpion provides a glimmer of hope.

The scorpion’s discovery comes amid several recent encounters with new species and animals previously thought to be extinct.

In late November, a scent-detection dog made the discovery of a lifetime after finding traces of the De Winton’s golden mole, a shimmering mole that rarely appears above ground and was believed to be extinct, considering it was last seen in 1936.

In addition, a gecko thought to be extinct was discovered thriving on one of the Galápagos Islands, while the Mini Galaxy flower was found growing in the middle of a road in Africa after not being spotted for over 40 years.