New deep sea creatures discovered1/2/2024 ![]() ![]() yucatanensis.īeing able to identify these species could be important to conservation: The researchers conclude that some giant isopods are targets of deep-sea trawl fisheries, so “it is important to know precisely which species are being caught.”īesides, the new discovery gives scientists a clearer picture of what’s out there on the ocean floor. maxeyorum, which was described in 2016, B. As of now, though, this finding brings the total to three- B. The researchers suggest there may be other Bathynomus species still undiscovered in the Gulf of Mexico. Plus, it has longer antennae and a thorax that’s shaped like an inverted triangle, rather than an oval. giganteus, this new species “has more slender body proportions and is shorter in total length,” the authors write. ![]() “The two species likely had a common ancestor,” the researchers write.Ĭompared to B. giganteus-the isopod that it was originally mistaken for. They found that the closest relative of the new-to-science B. The authors constructed an evolutionary tree, mapping the relationships between this and other isopods. yucatanensis specimen was collected between about 1,970 and 2,625 feet below sea level, per a statement.ī.yucatanensis looks like its land-dwelling isopod relative, the common woodlouse (also called a pill bug or roly poly)-but at 10 inches long and 5 inches wide, B. Before being housed at the Japanese aquarium, the B. They dubbed it Bathynomus yucatanensis, after Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where it was captured in 2017.Īround 20 living Bathynomus, or giant isopod, species are known, but they are rarely seen by humans because they live so deep in the ocean. Huang and two other experts describe the new isopod in a study published in the Journal of Natural History. “At first, I thought it was contamination, so I repeated the sequencing experiment several times,” Huang tells New Scientist's Corryn Wetzel. giganteus and this isopod, which meant this individual appeared to be something new. The genetic sequence showed at least 35 differences between B. Then, while researching isopod genetics, Huang Ming-Chih from Taiwan’s National University of Tainan sequenced its DNA. This cream-colored crustacean was originally mistaken for its larger relative, called Bathynomus giganteus. Scientists have discovered a new giant isopod species among the sea creatures held in a Japanese aquarium. It might seem unlikely that one of these species could be missed while in plain sight, but that’s exactly what’s happened, until now. He describes Ophiojura as "a totally unique and previously undescribed type of animal.Giant isopods are like something out of a science fiction novel-these massive, armored crustaceans use 14 legs to crawl along the ocean floor at staggering depths. ![]() "A microscopic scan revealed bristling rows of sharp teeth lining every jaw, which I reckon are used to snare and shred its prey," O'Hara explains in a blog post for The Conversation, a nonprofit media network that publishes news stories on new academic breakthroughs. It had two atypical features, even in the realm of brittle stars: eight arms (most have five) and eight nasty, razor-sharp sets of teeth. In 2015, his taxonomic specialty in Ophiurodea (brittle stars) proved incredibly useful: while sorting through a bucket of brittle stars, the 2011 Ophiojura specimen caught his eye. □ Love the mysteries of the sea? Explore the depths below with us.Īt the helm of those efforts is Tim O'Hara, senior curator of marine invertebrates at Museums Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. ![]() Last week, they published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. But it took 10 years for scientists to analyze the peculiar echinoderm's DNA. Looking at Ophiojura, a bizarre deep-sea creature with a gnarly set of saw-like teeth, you'd think Halloween came early this year.īy chance, researchers happened upon this ancient genus of brittle star-a distant relative of the starfish-during a 2011 trawling expedition on the Banc Durand seamount off the coast of New Caledonia in the Pacific.
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