New animal species with more than 200 legs discovered in the deep sea

Sea cucumber Synallactes mcdanieli

BIODIVERSITY DATA JOURNAL

The researchers are Francisco A Solís Marín, Andrea A Caballero Ochoa, Carlos A Conejeros-Vargas, all professors at the Institute of Marine and Lithological Sciences in Mexico.

In a report published in the journal Biodiversity Data , the team of professors describes a type of sea cucumber that lives on the deep sea floor, with a pale purple-pink body and 214 legs that crisscross its body.

Professor Conejeros-Vargas and his team named the new animal after Canadian naturalist Neil McDaniel, who specializes in studying a wide range of marine life, including sea cucumbers.

Therefore, the newly discovered sea cucumber species has the scientific name Synallactes mcdanieli, also known as McDaniel's Sea Cucumber.

Like other sea cucumbers, McDaniel's sea cucumbers are dedicated to cleaning the ocean floor. They can be found at depths ranging from 21 to 427 m in the Gulf of Alaska.

McDaniel's sea cucumber uses hundreds of legs to maneuver along the sea floor and uses its tentacles to capture all kinds of sediment for food.

According to Arnold Rakaj, a marine biologist at the University of Rome (Italy), sea cucumbers have an omnivorous diet consisting of fish waste, seaweed and other biological matter clinging to the seabed.

They are known as the hard-working workers of the oceans, with the task of cleaning up deep-sea trash.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/phat-hien-loai-dong-vat-moi-co-hon-200-chan-o-day-bien-sau-185240702152642246.htm