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On the 16th day of #Crustmas my true love gave to me Godzillius louriei Ballou, Bracken-Grissom & Olesen, 2021. This long-bodied crustacean belongs to class (Remipedia) that was completely unknown until Jill Yager published on the first species in 1981. And they are weird. First of all, they only are known to live in coastal anchialine caves. These caves tend to have water that is stratified due to changes in salinity.
#crustacea #arthropoda #caves
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Given this very particular habitat preference, you'd expect them to have a very restricted distribution. And you'd be wrong. While there are not many species, they are found in the Caribbean, the Canary Island of Lanzarote, and in Western Australia. How can we explain this biogeographic signature? Neiber et al 2011 point out that there are a number of unexplored/underexplored anchialine cave systems around the world--both on continents and on seamounts.
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So, I guess we just need to look for them? #biogeography #biodiversity
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Cave diving is notoriously dangerous. To fit through narrow passages, you often need to take off your air tank to wiggle through. You know, the air tank you need to live. Remipedes like G. louriei thrive in the dark. They are eyeless and unpigmented in the dark. Despite this, they are predators and scavengers. Their maxillules serve as venom-injectors. Picture is not Godzillius louriei. #cavediving
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@Thomashegna
As someone who is not planning to dive in caves, I was sort of hoping that these were meter-scale. Pity they seem to be mm-scale. How are we going to keep the poor cave divers from getting bored?
@Thomashegna look at those tergites! 
@ArthropodLegs they're dreamy, aren't they? Tergites for days . . .