Marine biologists from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, have described two new species of tiny marine crustaceans called amphipods from the Atlantic Ocean.
This image shows the amphipod Paracallisoma alberti. Image credit: Tammy Horton / Michael Thurston.
The two new amphipods, Paracallisoma idioxenos and Haptocallisoma lemarete, are very small creatures, about 3 mm in length.
They live in depths of up to 14,800 feet (4,500 m) in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“The new amphipod species have been named in honor of the late, great taxonomist, Roger Bamber, who passed away in February this year. Taxonomy is the science of description, naming and classification of animals or plants,” said Dr Tammy Horton, first author of a paper published in the journal Zootaxa.
“I gave the species name ‘lemarete’ to one of the amphipods because it translates from Greek to ‘Bold and Excellent’, which is the motto on Roger Bamber’s coat of arms. I chose this name because it is an accurate description of Roger, as well as being a little cryptic. Roger always put a lot of thought into the names he gave species, such as the tanaid species he named after a many-legged creature in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. ”
These crustaceans act in swarms to strip the carcasses of dead marine animals, including whales, fish and seabirds.
They are capable of stripping a pig carcass in a matter of days, according to the scientists.
“Amphipods are incredibly diverse and adaptable; there are currently around 10,000 species known to science,” Dr Horton said.
“They live in all marine environments, from shallow waters to the ocean’s deepest trenches, on land and in fresh water.”
In order to catch Paracallisoma idioxenos and Haptocallisoma lemarete, the team put mackerel bait in a trap and let it descend into the deep waters. When the traps were retrieved they contained up to 40,000 amphipods.
Dr Horton and her colleague, Dr Michael Thurston, also described two amphipod genera, one of which has been named Haptocallisoma, which means grasping in Greek, because their feet are able to cling to whatever they are eating.
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Tammy Horton & Michael Thurston. 2015. A revision of the genus Paracallisoma Chevreux, 1903 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Scopelocheiridae: Paracallisominae) with a redescription of the type species of the genus Paracallisoma and the description of two new genera and two new species from the Atlantic Ocean. Zootaxa, vol. 3995, no. 1; doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3995.1.12
