Californian Teens Discover Two New Scorpion Species and Are Not Planning to Stop There

Harper, Prakrit, and Lauren have a strong interest in studying the connection between scorpions and California’s ecosystems. Image credit: Gayle Laird / California Academy of Sciences
In their paper, the young authors call on federal land managers to create a conservation area for P. conclusus and work towards reducing the threats to its habitat from development and human-induced climate change. They are also collaborating with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to determine if P. conclusus qualifies as a threatened species and, consequently, eligible for federal protection.

Although Harper and Prakrit discovered the new scorpion species while they were still in high school, they are now both in college studying biology and pursuing their passion for ecology. The two friends are working on a book about California’s scorpions and planning to identify new species together through even more fieldwork.

“These kids can find anything,” Lauren told the Guardian. “You set them out in a landscape and they’re like: ‘Here’s every species of snake, here’s every scorpion, every butterfly,’ and it’s kind of incredible.”