• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Rare Isopod Filmed Swimming Upside-Down And Backwards 6,000 Meters Deep

September 12, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Deep in the ocean lives an unusual isopod that’s known to swim upside-down while going backwards with the help of peculiar paddle-like legs as long as your fingers. Scientists recently captured several of these critters on camera, revealing for the first time their surprising snack of choice: sargassum.

Advertisement

Sargassum would seem an unlikely choice for Bathyopsurus nybelini, an isopod that lives several thousand meters below the sea’s surface, which isn’t where you’ll find sargassum. This algae forms floating forests as it grows through photosynthesis, but when it sinks it seems it becomes a valuable source of nutrients for deep-sea animals.

“This isopod illustrates that an animal in a dark and high-pressure environment at the bottom of the seafloor has evolved multiple adaptations to feed on algae that grow in a sunlit ecosystem,” said co-lead author Mackenzie Gerringer, a deep-ocean physiologist at SUNY Geneseo, in a statement. “We’re excited to share its amazing story of adaptation and this important reminder that habitats and organisms on our planet are deeply and intricately connected.”

In what makes for a rather frantic mode of locomotion, the isopod can be seen paddling along with its peculiar appendages, dragging a piece of sargassum as it goes. Around 32 of the isopods were captured on camera at depths ranging from  5,001 to 6,284 meters (16,408 to 20,617 feet).

Two were collected for study, and the team combined morphological analysis, CT-scanning, DNA sequencing, and microbiological studies to reveal the many ways these isopods are physiologically and behaviorally adapted to eat sargassum. Such discoveries are crucial for better understanding deep-ocean ecology, helping us to build a more complete picture of the complex food webs unfolding under the sea. 

a deep sea isopod feeding on sargassum

Eating a snack that’s imported from 6,000 meters above your head? How very epicurean, Bathyopsurus nybelini.

Image credit: Daniel Hentz, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

“It was exciting to see this beautiful animal actively interacting with Sargassum, deep in the ocean,” said the study’s co-lead author, Johanna Weston, a hadal ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (the deep-sea weirdos experts). “This isopod is so rarely seen; only a handful of specimens were collected during the ground-breaking 1948 Deep Sea Swedish Expedition, which proved that life could survive in the deepest half of the ocean.”

“The last photo of one was taken in 2011. Using Alvin [a human-occupied submersible] and its recently updated capabilities to capture video and collect samples increases our understanding of what makes this isopod so special.”

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Motor racing-Hamilton says halo saved him in Monza collision
  2. US stock futures lead Asia lower, dollar gains on yen
  3. A Weight-Loss Drug Has Been Approved For Obese Children 12 And Up
  4. Ancient Egyptian Scribes Had The Same Bad Posture As You

Source Link: Rare Isopod Filmed Swimming Upside-Down And Backwards 6,000 Meters Deep

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version