A new species has been found paddling along the subsurface of the Arctic Ocean – a discovery that marks the first of its kind in Canada.
Aurelie Delaforge, University of Manitoba PhD student at the Centre for Earth Observation Science, first stumbled upon a new form of Monstrilloida zooplankton in the icy waters of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, in 2014. More than 160 different species of these "mini monsters" exist around the world, but none were known to live in Canada, until now.
The findings were published in the journal ZooKeys on Thursday, detailing Delaforge’s discovery of "the first record of Monstrillopsis in Canadian waters."
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Taxonomic drawing of the Monstrillopsis planifrons. (University of Manitoba)
"When we study the Arctic, there are still things we don’t know. This is a good example," Delaforge said in a press release.
The new crustacean, dubbed the Monstrilloidazooplankton, is just two millimetres long. It has eight legs, a translucent body, one feeble eye, no mouth, and two antennae.
Considering its uncanny appearance, the species was aptly named after the word "monster" – or, in the case of Canada’s new Monstrillopsis planifrons, "flat-headed monster."=READ MORE
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