Cave crawl leads to a Colorado family’s discovery of a tiny, new scorpion-like species

In The NOCO

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science recently made an exciting announcement: A new species of cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion had been discovered in the foothills outside Boulder. Researchers named it Larca boulderica – a nod to the city of Boulder – and say the only place on the planet where you’ll find it is in just two caves near the Boulder Flatirons.

We reached out to David Steinmann, the research associate with the Museum of Nature and Science who found the new species. We thought he’d want to talk about his once-in-a- lifetime discovery. Instead, he told us that for him, it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime event at all. In fact, he kind of specializes in hunting for new species, and thinks he’s found at least fifty of them. He attributes that to his family's lifelong love of exploring caves to search for tiny creatures.

Steinmann joined host Erin O’Toole to talk about his unusual work... what exactly a pseudoscorpion is... and whether we should have nightmares about them.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner

Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.