Researchers at Berhampur University in Odisha have discovered a new species of marine amphipod crustacea in Chilka Lake.
Key points
- This new species has been named “Parhyale odian” after Odia, the native language of Odisha.
- It resembles shrimp of the genus Parhyale.
- Genus Parhyale:- It is a species of amphipod crustacean.
- It is used in developmental and genetic analysis. It is classified as an emerging model organism.
- At present the number of global species has increased to 16 with the addition of one more species in the genus Parhyale.
- The color of this new species is brown and its length is about 8 millimeters.
- It has 13 pairs of legs.
- The species of the genus Parahyale were first discovered by Stebbing in the year 1899 from the Virgin Islands.
- This species is found in both marine brackish and freshwater environments.
Amphipod
- They are found in tropical and temperate regions along with intertidal and coastal areas.
- Their length ranges from 1 mm to 340 mm.
- They are an important group in the marine ecosystem.
- They play an important role in the marine food chain.
- These serve as indicators to study the effects of climate change and the health of coastal ecosystems.