Marine researchers discover new species off Mandapam coast

New Delhi: Researchers at a Kerala university unveiled a newly discovered marine tardigrade species found in intertidal beach sediments off the Tamil Nadu coast and named it “Batylipes chandrayi” in honor of India’s inaugural lunar mission, Chandrayaan. Who discovered the south pole of the Moon. .Scientists S Bijoy Nandan and Vishnu Duttan of the Department of Marine Technology, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) made the remarkable discovery from intertidal beach sediments of the Mandapam coast in Tamil Nadu – only the third organism described internationally from India.Nandan “The existing species is similar in size to other tardigrades, measuring about 0.15 millimeters (mm) in length and 0.04 mm in width, with four pairs of legs,” he told PTI. And have an important role in coastal ecosystems. “These species are extremely difficult to detect, because they are very difficult to handle and they live at low levels. We need strong international scientific collaboration to study these species,” Bijoy said. There is a need because there is not much expertise in the country regarding tardigrades.”

Tardigrades, often called water bears, are microscopic, water-dwelling animals. They are known for their extraordinary resilience and abilities to survive in extreme environmental conditions. “They are one of the hardiest animals on Earth and have survived all five mass extinctions,” said Bijoy. They are also the first known animals to survive after coming in contact with the world.” He added that this species, ecologically, acts as a pioneer species by inhabiting new developing environments, allowing it to colonize that place. Will attract other invertebrates. The new species belongs to the phylum Tardigrada, which includes more than 1,300 described species. Of these, only 17 percent are marine species. Speaking about the scientific importance of this new species, Bijoy said, “Few morphological variations between species and a limited number of differentiating characters make tardigrade classification challenging and problematic.” This is the third time This is when a marine tardigrade has been described from Indian waters and also from the east coast for the second time. Earlier, the same research team had described one from the south-west coast (Stigaractus keralensis) in 2021 and one from the south-east coast (Batylipes kalami) in 2023. The marine tardigrade was discovered. A paper regarding the latest discovery has been published in the journal Zootaxa.