In August 2015, Ryukyu University announced that it had discovered two new species of the genus Tatsutogekawa, a kinorhyncha, in the waters around the Ryukyu Islands.Kinorhynchas are invertebrates with a maximum body length of about 8 mm.The genus Tatsutogekawa found this time was first reported in Hiroshima Prefecture in 2, and four species have been known from the Seto Inland Sea, South Korea, and the Mediterranean Sea.In the Ryukyu Islands, it was collected in a survey conducted by American and Japanese researchers in 1, but it remained under-researched.
Two species were found this time, Ryukyu Tatsutogekawa and Toyoshio Tatsutogekawa.Ryukyu Tatsutogekawa was found on the seabed at a depth of 2 to 15 m and is 30 to 0.2 mm in length. It was revealed that it is the same species as the one collected in the 0.3 survey, and it was the first discovery in about 1986 years.Toyoshio Tatsutogekawa is a seabed with a depth of 30m and a body length of about 700mm.
These are small creatures on the ocean floor that are barely noticeable.Research on these small organisms has not yet progressed sufficiently, and it is believed that there are many undiscovered species.Postdoctoral fellow Hiroshi Yamazaki of the Faculty of Science, Ryukyu University, who conducted this survey, says that it is important to look at these inconspicuous organisms in order to correctly understand biodiversity.
This achievement was published in the international magazine Zootaxa published on June 2015, 6.
