There was a new species of isopod in the aquarium. It was mistakenly found in the Gulf of Mexico.
Corryn Wetzel is a writer.
One of the giant isopods found in the deep sea is Bathynomus Yucatanensis.
The journal of natural history is written by Dr. Ming-Chih Huang.
A giant armored crustacean has been found in a Japanese aquarium. Giant isopods are large, 14-legged crustaceans that live in the deepest waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
When the yellow crustacean was collected from a baited trap off the coast of Mexico's Yucatn Peninsula, it was assumed that it was the Bathonymus giganteus species of isopod. The specimen was preserved for a previous project at the National University of Tainan in Taiwan.
The new isopod has a full set of genetic instructions, but B. giganteus has only a partial set.
The results of the experiment suggested that he had two different species on his hands.
A scaled-up version of the common woodlouse is called the Bathonymus yucatanensis. In the rarely explored benthic zone, the isopod lives about 600 to 800 metres below sea level.
There are a few features that make B. Yucatanensis unique. The specimen is 26 centimetres in length and 13 centimetres in width.
The authors say that B. giganteus has more slender body proportions and is shorter in total length.
Extra long antennae and a yellow shell make it stand out from the crowd.
B. Yucatanensis is harmless to humans and prefers to eat dead whales and fish that settle on the sea floor.
Huang thinks other giant isopods may have been mis identified because B. yucatanensis was not recognised for a long time. He is looking into the possibility that a crustacean from the South China Sea is a new species of isopod.
The journal has a reference in it.
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