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
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.
The new species was discovered during a 2019 mission led by
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
You can see its guts and things,” study co-author Nicholas Higgs told
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,
The study is published in