New Eyeless Crustacean Species Discovered

Volcanic lava forms some peculiar structures in the deep ocean, including underwater tunnels, which apparently become home to some of the world's most peculiar animal species. The Tunnel de la Atlantida, the longest such formation in the world, recently revealed one of its most peculiar inhabitants, a new eyeless crustacean species, which its discoverers dubbed Speleonectes atlantida. Details of the animal will appear in a September special issue of the journal Marine Biodiversity.

In addition to the crustacean, the underwater cave also revealed two new species of annelid worms, LiveScience reports. The tunnel, which is located near the Canary Islands, off the western coast of northern Africa, was formed after the eruption of the Monte Corona volcano, which took place some 20,000 years ago, on the island of Lanzarote. The tube is more than 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) long, and features many less common species of animals.

“The tunnel formed because the lava on the surface cooled and solidified faster than lava in the center of the stream. At present, there are no more active volcanoes on Lanzarote. The last eruptions took place in the 18th century,” expert Stefan Koenemann, from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, in Germany, explains. He has also been a researcher involved in the new investigation, which also included other scientists and cave divers.

The new, Remipedia-class crustacean is less than an inch long, and is part of a group that only features cave-dwellers. All of these species have both male and female organs, and are born without eyes. They wouldn't do them much good in the complete darkness of underwater caves in either case. Instead, they have long antennas on their heads, as well as large amounts of sensitive hair fibers on their legs and body, which help them detect what is around them.

“Apart from its powerful raptorial head limbs, which are used to hunt and seize other cave animals up to twice their body size, remipedes like Speleonectes are also filter- or particle feeders and scavengers. In other words, they are capable of using and ingesting a large variety of food types,” Koenemann tells the news site. The expert adds that the new animals may be part of the same family as all other 20 species of remipedes, which can mostly be found in the Caribbeans.

“The previously known species in the tunnel, Speleonectes ondinae, was considered an isolated relic that became separated from the main distribution area in the larger Caribbean region a very long time ago, presumably more than 200 million years ago, when the continental plates began drifting apart,” he concludes.