If you thought you had some big ‘pods in your reef tank or your refugium, just wait until you get a look at the newest species of ‘supergiant’ Isopod. Bathynomus raksasa is the newest member of these deep sea isopods that are found at extreme depths, living an extremely slow and lethargic lifestyle on the sea floor.
Before the description of this ‘darth vader’-helmeted crustacean there were 16 species of Bathynomus of which seven were classified as supergiants measuring more than 30 cm, or around a foot in total length. Bathynomus Isopods occur in all the oceans of the world but the newly described B. raksasa is the first record of the giant isopod genus from Indonesia.
The type specimens used to describe the giant crustacean were collected in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java at a depth of 957–1259 meters or up to the better part of a mile deep! Despite living in such deep waters, giant isopod are an important part of these cold water and low energy ecosystem, helping to clean up and consume the carcasses of larger animals that reach the bottom before decomposing in the water column.
You won’t see any isopods this big in general ocean diving but the Caribbean species are often collected for display in public exhibits and are even suitable for touch tanks such as this example at the Florida Keys Aquarium. [ZooKeys]
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