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    Searching for Disappearing Species in the US’ Deepest Wilds

    by Ben Goldfarb Aug 11, 2014 3 minutes

    Michael Lucid photographs samples found during the Multispecies Baseline Initiative (MBI).Ben Goldfarb

    n 2010, Michael Lucid, a biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish & Game, captured a surprise in a beer-baited gastropod trap—a slug that didn’t genetically resemble any of the ones he’d caught before. On a hunch, Lucid sent the mysterious invertebrate to an expert in North Carolina; soon after, the expert called back. Lucid’s slug, it turned out, was possibly a new species, with one special trait: It was equipped with a gigantic penis. 

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