A sea squirt that lives off the coast of Japan and has a particular “panda face” is a new species to science. Oh, did we point out it has a skeleton-like physique? You simply can’t make these things up.
Divers have been taking footage of this mysterious colonial ascidian known as gaikotsu-panda-hoya in Japanese and posting them on-line since no less than 2018. When one Japanese researcher noticed the photographs, he got down to discover out extra about this distinctive animal.
In a analysis paper, authors and scientists Naohiro Hasegawa and Hiroshi Kajihara say they took samples of the ocean squirt with a panda face from a diving level off the coast of Kumejima Island.
“Our morphological examination revealed that they signify a brand new species, herein described as Clavelina ossipandae sp. nov., which could be distinguished from 44 congeners within the genus Clavelina,” the paper says.
The skeleton panda sea squirt (Clavelina ossipandae) lives in a colony with others of its type. Every one has black markings, which look rather a lot just like the black and white fur on an enormous panda’s face. Additionally notable is the skeletal look of the ocean squirt’s tube-like physique.
Sea squirts are marine animals that connect to the seafloor or another sort of substrate. They’re filter feeders, which suggests they filter vitamins from the water that passes via their our bodies.
