Photo from open sources
Monterey Bay Research Institute staff stumbled off the coast of California on a strange creature similar to view of the luminous spring. Last seen this amazing creature over a century ago. The rarest marine dweller to the bathyscaphe of American oceanologists and climbed to the surface together with a deep-sea vessel. The experts didn’t believe their luck, when they realized that the unexpected guest was safe and sound.
However, the inhabitant of the depths remained alive for a short while, since delighted by such an unusual catch, the experts immediately dissected creation to subsequently deliver it to washington National Museum of Natural History. According to oceanologists, we are talking about the pelagic shell Bathochordaeus charon from the class Appendiculars. The last mention of this creature is found in scientific writings of the late nineteenth century.
A photo from open sources
Appendiculars resemble tiny tadpoles no more than one centimeter. The sheath has a small ovoid body and tail, which is several times longer than the body. These organisms live in a kind of “houses”, which are their modified shells. Using his soft shell, a marine resident filters water by catching plankton and various nutrients impurities. When the “strainer” of the appendicular is clogged, the membrane breaks the wall of his “house” and gets out, after which builds up a new “sink”.
Good name of oceanologist rehabilitated
The pioneer of this species was the German Carl Chun from Leipzig University. In 1899, a biologist studied the fauna of the southern Atlantic and noticed an unusually large appendicular. Scientist carefully studied this deep-sea organism and named it after Charon – ancient Greek mythological character carrying souls deceased across the river Styx. Since then, these shells no one caught – at least to people the science of such catches is not it was reported. By the way, some colleagues of Carl Chun even accused him in a lie, but now it became clear that the German did not invent it being. That is, we can say that the good name of the scientist in a hundred and over the years completely rehabilitated …
A photo from open sources
Rob Sherlock, one of the authors of the find, says that Bathochordaeus charon has so far been little studied by specialists. By According to a professor at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, now he and his co-workers intend to conduct DNA analysis of appendiculars. It is noteworthy that the researchers revised for the sake of interest the old videos from their bathyscaphes and suddenly found that rare they’ve come across almost legendary shells before, but nobody I didn’t even know about it.
DNA
