A team of marine biologists has discovered a new species of deep water crustacean off the Bahamas.
The new species has been formally identified as belonging to the genus booralana. This is not the first new creature to be found in the waters of the Bahamas and is part of a long-term research project aimed at exploring the Bahamas’ Exuma Sound. The previous discovery dates back to 2016 with the identification of a new Isopod, Bathynomus maxeyorum.
The discovery includes the work of Oliver Shipley, a research assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, who stated:
“This work highlights the cryptic diversity of this group and underscores how little we know about deep-sea ecosystems in The Bahamas. The Caribbean houses many deep-sea ecosystems that could be considered pristine, mostly hidden from anthropogenic exploitation, such as deep-sea fisheries and mining. Therefore, they provide a baseline from which to compare exploitation effects occurring in less pristine regions. However, these systems are not immune from the increasing impacts of climate changes and pollution, so it is critical that we understand the full extent of the biodiversity supported by these deep-sea environments.”
You can find the original research here.
