Census of Marine Life researchers got a big surprise when they trawled up this "Jurassic shrimp."The scientists were documenting life on undersea mountains, or seamounts, in the Coral Sea off northeast Australia when they found this specimen (Australia map). It belongs to a species thought to have died out some 50 million years ago.
Caught at a depth of 1,300 feet (400 meters), the new species is described as a "living fossil" by survey member Bertrand Richer de Forges, a marine biologist based in nearby Noumea, New Caledonia.
Neoglyphea neocaledonica belongs to an ancient group of crustaceans that were "well known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods [roughly 200 to 65 million years ago] and were supposed to be extinct," de Forges said.
More species after the jump.
Link & Image: National Geographic
Tags: Sea Animals | Science | Marine
Comments