(ORDO NEWS) — The bottom of the Bereng Sea is riddled with mysterious holes. Scientists have spent a lot of time trying to figure out who or what put them there. And here they found the answer to this question.
Today, scientists are sure that amphipods leave holes in the bottom – these are crustaceans.
When they feel hungry, they may not specifically sift through the bottom in search of food. It took several decades to solve this mystery.
Amphipods are a subclass of crustaceans that live in aquatic ecosystems and can be either free-swimming or attached to rocks, algae, and other surfaces.
They are small shelled or shellless organisms with a body consisting of a head, thorax and abdomen, with several pairs of legs and whiskers.
Amphipods play an important role in the ecosystems they inhabit, as food for other animals and important detritoids that help break down organic materials in the aquatic environment.
Scientists have long studied the diversity of life in the Aleutian Basin, which is located next to Alaska. Here they discovered more than 200 tunnels, which are like a web located in the depths of the seabed.
Apart from side-swallows and amphipods, they found no other representative of the underwater world capable of this.
The sizes of small crustaceans vary from 1 mm to 34 cm. Some representatives of this species are able to dig holes in search of nutritious deposits.
Thanks to the latest technologies, scientists even managed to take a photo showing an amphipod digging the bottom of the Bering Sea. But he differed from all previously known species of his relatives.
The author of the study, Angelica Brandt, says that this is an incredible discovery for the world of science.
By finding the architects of the underwater caves, biologists will learn more about the microfauna of this region. Namely, a new species of amphipod was found, which most likely creates its own tunnels.
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