• 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

This Freaky Deep-Sea Creature Has Been Hunting In The Dark For 300 Million Years

February 1, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

A new species of giant deep-sea isopod has been identified in the Bahamas after researchers with OceanX deployed traps on the seabed. A cousin of the much beloved terrestrial roly-poly pill bugs, they serve a similar ecological role in the nutrient cycle, making them a vital part of the ecosystem.

These alien-like critters have see-through bodies and big buggy eyes that help them search for prey in the gloomy depths. If you’re wondering what a roly-poly on steroids eats 600 meters (1,969 feet) below the sea, they’re partial to sea cucumbers, sponges, and nematodes, but will also scavenge any morsels that rain down from above.

Advertisement

The new species was discovered during a 2019 mission led by OceanX and the Cape Eleuthera Institute that deployed baited eel traps and light traps in the Exuma Sound at depths between 540 and 656 meters (1,172 and 2,152 feet). At sizes between 4 and 6 centimeters (1.5 and 2.4 inches), they’re described as large compared to other species in their genera, most of which are less than 3 centimeters (1.2 inches).

deep sea isopod new species

It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.

Images courtesy of OceanX

The chonky boi has been named Booralana nickorum, named after two family members of study senior author Edward Brooks. It joins two other species from the marine Cirolanidae to be discovered in the Caribbean region since 2010: Bathynomus maxeyorum and Bathynomus yucatanensis.

Its segmented body is protected by a hardened exoskeleton which is white at a push, but nearing translucent. There’s no need for flashy coloration when you live in a habitat that’s almost completely devoid of light.

You can see its guts and things,” study co-author Nicholas Higgs told Live Science. According to Higgs, who is director of research and innovation at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, it was clear to the team that the new species was “definitely different from anything we’ve seen before” when they first observed it onboard the research vessel.

Advertisement

The isopod’s discovery comes as part of an OceanX mission that was focused on identifying both deep-sea and mid-water species, testing 3D models of little-known organisms, investigating the expansion and feeding state of sargassum falls (seaweed on the ocean floor), and satellite tagging bluntnose six-gill sharks at depth. 

And if you get a new-to-science species of giant see-through isopod to boot? As they say, there are many benefits to being a marine biologist.

The study is published in Zootaxa.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Banking regulator fines Wells Fargo $250 million over remediation shortcomings
  2. Olympics-Norway rules out mandating vaccines ahead of Beijing Games
  3. Why Some People Lose Their Accents But Others Don’t
  4. Thousands Of Bones From 52 Creatures Discovered In Ancient Animal Sacrifice Pit

Source Link: This Freaky Deep-Sea Creature Has Been Hunting In The Dark For 300 Million Years

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • “Nobody Expected This”: Earth’s Rotation Will Speed Up Tomorrow, Bucking The Downward Trend
  • Chimps Are Sticking Grass In Their Ears And Rears As They Embrace “Pointless” Fad
  • Hui Te Rangiora: Old Māori Legend Suggests They May Have Discovered Antarctica 1,000 Years Before Europeans
  • “Potential Impact On Saturn”: Astronomers Appeal For Help As Video Appears To Show Object Hitting The Gas Giant
  • What Is Prosopometamorphopsia? The “Exceedingly Rare” Condition That Made A Patient See Faces As Dragons
  • Are We In An Enormous Void? It Could Explain What’s Wrong With Our Model Of The Universe
  • Woylies Boing Back Into Western Australia Thanks To Groundbreaking Wildlife Project
  • North America’s Oldest Pterosaur And Turtle Fossils Found In Arizona’s Petrified Forest
  • Proposed “Dark Dwarfs” Near The Galactic Center Could Reveal The Nature Of Dark Matter
  • Watch: 18-Kilometer-High Ash Cloud Looms Over Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki After “Explosive” Eruption
  • “ShipGoo001”: Mystery Of Entirely New Lifeform Discovered Coating A Great Lakes Ship
  • Rare White Humpback Whale Calf Filmed By Drone Off Australia’s East Coast
  • Who Was Buried At Cave Of Salome: A Female Disciple, Jesus’ Midwife, Or A Princess?
  • “Hidden” Changes To US Health Data Swapping “Gender” For “Sex” Spark Fears For Public Trust
  • Easter Island Was Never As Isolated As We Thought – Study Puts That “Strange Argument” To Bed
  • If Birds Are Dinosaurs, Why Are None As Big As T. Rexes?
  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • 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