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The campus lake, much loved by all students, this week won a world-renowned prize: The Royal Society's annual international ‘Award to an area of outstanding natural beauty and biodiversity’.
According to the chief judge on the panel, Mike Forrester, the university’s lake was “a very obvious winner for us. We discovered more than 27 completely new species in our assessment of the lake, all highly unusual specimens!” The stunning diversity of organisms has been attributed to the lake's filthy, rancid water; according to Mark Renton, an evolutionary biologist on the judging panel, “Not many species can survive in this rather dirty water. What’s happened is that somehow, in the last fifty-odd years, a load of new species capable of surviving in this ecosystem have evolved- this is extremely surprising considering normally this process takes millions of years, perhaps it’s something in the water.”
The majority of new species discovered were aquatic plants but a few animals were also discovered, most notably a new species of freshwater dolphin which appears only to feed on the common algal blooms the lake experiences. Another new species noted in the 466 page report produced by judges was a highly unique hermit crab, which appear to use plastic rubbish found in the lake for their makeshift shells.
The university’s environment officer, Diane Coulston, is delighted at the award “There are lots of complaints made about how disgusting and unhygienic the lake is. These discoveries show that the lake is actually a very biologically diverse place, all thanks the lack of human imposition.”
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