Tarek Chaaban

Twenty-seven previously unknown species of spiders, centipedes, scorpion-like creatures and other animals have been discovered in the dark, damp caves beneath two national parks in the Sierra Nevada, biologists say.

“Not only are these animals new to science, but they’re adapted to very specific environments — some of them, to a single room in one cave,” said Joel Despain, a cave specialist who helped explore 30 of the 238 known caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The discoveries include a relative of the pill bug so translucent that its internal organs are visible. There is a daddy long legs spider with jaws bigger than its body, a tiny flourescent orange spider and an eyeless silverfish.

The species have yet to be named.