Head of Bathynomus vaderi, new marine isopod name
Nguyen Thanh Son
A large crustacean living in the sea off Vietnam has been named as a new species and named after Darth Vader.
Bathynomus vaderi is a kind of isopod, a group that also includes stems. It can reach a length of more than 30 centimeters and a weight of more than a kilogram.
So far, the new species has only been found by fishermen near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Peter Ng at the National University of Singapore and colleagues analyzed four specimens obtained from the Quy Nhơn fisheries in south-central Vietnam. The locals call them “sea bugs”.
Researcher Peter Ng examines giant isopods at a seafood market in Hanoi, Vietnam
Nguyen Thanh Son
According to Ng, the team chose the species name because of its resemblance to Darth Vader’s mask, but also because the creature is believed to live between 800 and 1200 meters deep, where it is always dark.
“I am the greatest Star Wars fan in the group, as it is my vintage. The first movie was in 1977, when I was young, and it was cool,” says Ng. “But we all agree on that face Bathynomus He looks so much like Darth Vader that he should have been named after the Sith Lord.
Isopods have become a popular seafood dish in Vietnamese restaurants since 2017, and are said to be as tasty as lobster.
But little is known about their ecology or their impact on trawler populations, says the team member Conni Sidabalo At the National Research and Innovation Agency in Cibinong, Indonesia.
“The scale of the harvest is alarming. It’s a challenge for all the deep sea species we fish for,” he says. “We know so little about their biology, so we need more research to assess how best to conserve and manage this resource.”
Topics:
