These creatures appear like one thing you might even see in a “Males In Black” film, however consider it or not, yow will discover them on Earth down within the deep sea.
A gaggle of researchers lately found a brand new species of large “sea bugs” that dwell down on the backside of the ocean.
These sea bugs are literally isopods often known as Bathynomus yucatanensis. Like different isopods, they’re typically thought-about bugs, although they don’t match into the class.
These isopods turned well-known throughout observations in a 2019 viral video of them consuming an alligator within the first-ever deep-sea alligator meals fall.
The researchers within the above video state that the alligator was positioned on the ocean ground, and fewer than 24 hours later, the ocean bugs emerged to feast.
Now, researchers are finding out these sea bugs extra in-depth.
A brand new examine printed within the Journal of Natural History in August appeared into the Bathynomus yucatanensis and detailed their habits, with the researchers stating that these isopods don’t seem to hunt their prey and behave extra like a scavenger of meals, in order that they aren’t something to concern.
They’re nonetheless fairly creepy to take a look at although.
Within the study, the researchers say that these creatures seek for leftover corpses of sea creatures or every other meals they will simply get entry to. Essentially the most notable factor about them is that they will eat a complete alligator corpse in simply 51 days.
The examine additionally goes into element about the place these creatures are discovered. They’re mostly present in tropical temperature areas within the deep ocean. Researchers have been capable of finding them within the waters off Taiwan, within the neighborhood of Pratas Island – an island within the northern a part of the South China Sea — and off the Yucatán Peninsula within the Gulf of Mexico.
These sea bugs can develop as much as 1.5 toes lengthy, from the creature’s head to its tail. Due to its whitish shade, the researchers say when seen within the ocean, they appear like large items of rice floating within the ocean.
