‘Unusual’ eyeless creature discovered in deep-sea volcanic environment, study says

Twenty-two years ago, researchers pulled up something “unusual” from the depths of the Pacific Ocean — though their discovery wouldn’t be fully appreciated for years.

While aboard a research vessel off the coast of New Zealand, a team of geologists and biologists hoisted volcanic sediment samples up from the ocean floor.

Clinging to the sediment was a small number of “seemingly unremarkable” deep-sea crustaceans.

The creatures were whisked away to a museum in Germany and later to a research facility in Wellington, New Zealand, where they were stored for decades.

Now, upon analysis, researchers revealed that they belong to an entirely new species of isopod, according to a study published Jan. 11 in the European Journal of Taxonomy.

Isopods are types of invertebrates that include shrimp, crabs and wood lice. Worldwide, there are estimated to be more than 10,000 different species, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Similar to insects, isopods have antennae, multiple sets of jaws and defensive plates lining their abdomen, according to research from the University at Buffalo.

Experts say the newfound species are “unusual” in that they possess characteristics associated with two different families: Joeropsididae Nordenstam, a shallow-water species, and Haploniscidae Hansen, a deep-water species.

Researchers eventually placed them in the genus Basoniscus and named the species hikurangi in a nod to New Zealand’s Mountain Hikurangi.

White in color, they have a broad body that measures just under two millimeters in length, researchers said. They sport a series of “robust” claws and no eyes.

The species are sexually dimorphic, meaning both males and females have similar characteristics, “which is unusual for many isopods,” researchers said.

Interestingly, they appear “remarkably” similar to a terrestrial species of isopod.

“If it had been collected on land in Australia or New Zealand, it might have been mistaken for a species of Armadillidae Brandt,” researchers said.

Finding these “rare” isopods is considered difficult as their deep-sea environments are poorly sampled.

“The southern hemisphere, relative to the northern hemisphere, is especially undersampled,” researchers said.

But millions of specimens have been collected over the last half-century, a large quantity of which now reside in museums around the world.

“These valuable specimens are overlooked by funding agencies and research programs, which typically are aimed at collecting new materials for specific research aims,” researchers said.

In order to gain a better understanding of deep-sea crustaceans, further research should focus on these neglected museum collections.

This story was originally published January 12, 2024 at 10:21 AM with the headline "‘Unusual’ eyeless creature discovered in deep-sea volcanic environment, study says."