Cryptops speleorex

Movile Cave in Romania was cut off from the outside world millions of years ago, and workers came upon it only in 1986. Nothing there runs on sunlight: its food chain starts with bacteria living on carbon dioxide and methane, in air that may hold about half the usual oxygen. This venomous centipede, 46 to 52 mm long, is the largest animal known from the cave and sits at the top of that chain. Its name, given when it was described in 2020, means King of the Cave. It evolved from a surface-dwelling relative over millions of years of isolation, one of many species found nowhere else but Movile.