A new deep-sea crustacean that bears a striking resemblance to the facehuggers from "Alien" has been identified off the Gulf of Mexico.
The bathynomus yucatanensis is a species of giant isopod, crustaceans that scavenge for food at the bottom of the ocean. Their segmented, fourteen-legged bodies resemble their much smaller relative, the woodlouse. The foot-long size of the giant isopods has been attributed to deep-sea gigantism, the same phenomenon that leads to giant squids at the bottom of our oceans.
A group of Taiwanese, Japanese, and Australian researchers set out to describe the new species of giant isopod and distinguish it from the bathynomus giganteus, the giant isopods found throughout the tropical western Atlantic waters. Their research was published in the Journal of Natural History on Tuesday.
