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Eyeless Creature Discovered Off African Coast
AUGUST 25, 2009David Johnson, Citizen JournalistA previously unknown species of an eyeless crustacean (named Speleonectes atlantida) was recently discovered in the Tunnel de la Atlantida, the world's longest submarine lava tube on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands off the western coast of northern Africa.Although blind, it makes up for it with plenty of sensory hairs along its body and antennae on its head. These structures help the tiny animal "see" in its dark, cave habitat.The 5,000-foot long tube where the crustacean lives formed some 20,000 years ago when the Monte Corona volcano erupted on the island of Lanzarote. The erupted molten rock flowed across the land and into the ocean. "The tunnel formed because the lava on the surface cooled and solidified faster than lava in the center of the stream," said study researcher Stefan Koenemann of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, in Germany."Apart from its powerful raptorial head limbs, which are used to hunt and seize other cave animals up to twice their body size, remipedes like Speleonectes are also filter- or particle feeders and scavangers," Koenemann told LiveScience. "In other words, they are capable of using and ingesting a large variety of food types."For more on this story, visit this link: www.livescience.com/animals/090825-lava-tube-species
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