Courtesy / UMinho
Expert describes this new marine species, which was discovered off the southwest coast of India. There are also “exemplars” in Portugal.
One researcher at the University of Minho discovered in India one new marine species.
Marcos Rubal is a biologist at the Center for Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA) at the School of Sciences at the University of Minho.
And it was on the southwest coast of India that he discovered a type of “water bear” (Batillipes chandrayaani)during research with two colleagues from an Indian university.
The species is an organism invertebrate Tem unique features in the head, in the shapes of the fingers, in the folds of the protective layer of the body, in the sensory structures of the fourth leg and in the appendage of the tail.
And it is an animal that helps to understand the effects of environmental changes in the marine ecosystem.
In a statement sent to ZAP, UMinho details that researchers analyzed nearly 50 specimens collected from sandy sediments from Mini Coral beach, in Mandapam, and identified the new species.
“Water bears” – or tardigrades – are known for their resistance to extreme conditions: temperature, radiation, dehydration and vacuum.
They appear in various environments, and marine ones live in oceans, seas and salt lakes, housed in sediments, algae and submerged rocks.
These animals play a crucial role in control of algae and bacterial populationscontributing to the nutrient cycle and ecological balance.
By eating acteria, algae, fungi and resistant forms of phytoplankton, they promote the decomposition of organic matter; and help clean beachespreventing red tides from predominating
Species of tardigrades have also been found in Portugal and in Spain: “We identified six species that had never been described to science and 18 that were recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula”, says Marcos Rubal.
The last two were identified in 2018, on the beach in Lagos, Algarve and on the Galician coast (Batillipes algharbensis e Batillipes the Lusitanian). Two others were also discovered in Portugal – in Lisbon (Macrobiotus halophilus) and on the Minho River (Batillipes smaller).
