A new Israeli study shows that scorpions are master architects when designing and building their burrows, even including a platform on which to warm up before the evening hunt. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientists Dr. Amanda Adams, a post-doc in the Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and Professor Berry Pinshow, her adviser, found that wild Large-Clawed Scorpions (Scorpio maurus palmatus) build their burrows to meet their physiological needs and that this could predict how they’ll acclimatize to climate change. The Israeli researchers are investigating the burrows of wild Large-Clawed Scorpions in the Negev Desert of Israel. “Very little is known about burrow environments,” says Dr. Adams. “We plan to expand our studies to more scorpion species around the world to test how burrow structure is shaped to be part of the burrow builder’s extended physiology.” The researchers said that in understanding the relationship between environmental conditions and burrow structures, it could help to predict how burrow-builders will respond to climate change. Dr. Adams presented the study at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology in Manchester, UK. (via Israel21c)

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