New crustaceans discovered in the Canary Islands

During an underwater cave expedition to explore Tunnel de la Atlantida - the world's longest underground lava flow in the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, a scientific group has discovered crustaceans yet. once known as Spelepnectes flippers.

They smoothly swim in the darkness of the caves deep in the sea, constantly paying attention to the prey. The carnivorous crustaceans of the subspecies Remipedia have no eyes but use long antennae to feel the dark space around them. Like some monster in fiction, their heads are equipped with large limbs capable of holding prey and venomous teeth.

Therefore, they have very scary Latin names. For example, the name Cryptocorynetes translates to 'Phu carrying a secret coffin' or Kaloketos pilosus with the meaning of 'hairy sea monster'. Some other species are named after famous monsters in Japanese horror movies, such as 'Monthra swim' (Pleomothra), 'Great Godzilla' (Godzillius robustus), or 'Godzilla dwarf god' ( Godzilliognomus).

During a sea cave expedition to explore Tunnel de la Atlantida - the world's longest underground lava flow in the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, a group of scientists discovered the crustacean of the genus Unprecedented Speleonectes flippers, and two species of burning worms belonging to Polychaeta class.

On a sea cave expedition to explore Tunnel de la Atlantida - the world's longest underground lava flow in the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, a scientific group has discovered crustaceans yet. once known as Spelepnectes flippers. (Photo: © Springer)

The team consists of scientists from Texas A&M University and Pennsylvania State University, La Laguna University of Spain, and Hamburg University and the German Veterinary University of Germany. The results of the ocean expedition Atlantida Diving Expedition will be published in detail in the special issue of Marine Biodiversity in September.

The newly discovered species belongs to the class of Flippers and is called Speleonectes atlantida after the name of the steam cave system it inhabits . In terms of morphology, the new species is very similar to Speleonectes ondinae, a flippers discovered in the same underground lava flow in 1985.

Based on DNA comparisons, the team of Professor Stefan Koenemann from TiHo Hannover Animal Biology & Ecology Research Institute has demonstrated that this is the second species of flippers living in the same area. The separation between the two species may have occurred after the 6 km lava flow formed during the eruption of the Monte Corona volcano about 20,000 years ago.

The discoveries of flippers are one of the most significant biological discoveries in the last 30 years. The first species of this crustacean group were known in 1979 when humans dived into the undersea cave system of Grand Bahama Island, the Bahamas. Since then, 22 different species of this class have been discovered in turn by humans. The main distribution area of ​​the group of living animals in the ocean floor cave stretches from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico to the northeastern Caribbean. However, two geographically separated species live only in caves in Western Australia and Lanzarote, Spain.

The discovery of these two special species continues to add to the conjecture about the evolutionary origin and history of the Classification of Flippers. It is believed that small animals (the largest of only 4 cm in length) used to live in deep caves and without eyes to observe cannot swim through a long ocean, so surely there is another reason for the unfocused distribution of these subclass species. Scientists hypothesize that Flippers are a very ancient group of crustaceans, once common in the oceans of the Mesozoic (Mesozoic) 200 million years ago. For these reasons, flippers are often considered to be primitive crustaceans.

According to the evolutionary hypothesis, the newly discovered Speleonectes atlantida and its relatives Speleonectes ondina are the remaining ancient organisms isolated from the Classification of the Caribbean Coast during the Atlantic Ocean formation. .

Refer:

1. Koenemann et al.A new, disjunct species of Speleonectes (Remipedia, Crustacea) from the Canary Islands.Marine Biodiversity, 2009;DOI: 10.1007 / s12526-009-0021-8