NIWA Invertebrate Collection

Real-life Pokémon? 👀

Not quite. Spiny sea slaters!

They look like trilobite imposters, but these creatures aren’t related to the extinct critters at all. They’re a type of isopod (Brucerolis genus) that live in the deep sea. Check out those eyes! 😍

Measuring about 2-5cm long, spiny sea slaters are scavengers, searching the seafloor for tasty morsels. Equipped with spiky armour they’d be an unpleasant mouthful for a fish! Sea ya slater predators. 🛡️

They’re commonly found in depths between 490 and 1,700m along the eastern margin of New Zealand. 🌊

These ones were found earlier this year by our team onboard RV Tangaroa for an Ocean Census voyage to the Bounty Trough to discover new species. 🚢

📸 Rebekah Parsons-King

Are you new here? 👀🤨

NIWA marine invertebrate systematist Rachael Peart has added another new species of amphipod to her growing list of over 100 discoveries. 📋

Rachael and University of Hamburg colleague, Anne-Nina Lörz, recently found the specimen in the NIWA Invertebrate Collection and identified it as possibly new to science. 💡

The amphipod had been collected from 4,159m in the waters off northern New Zealand a few years prior. 🌊

After taking a closer look and comparing it to other species, Rachael and Anna confirmed their suspicion, they had discovered a new species. 🎉 Rachael named it Amathillopsis lowry in recognition of her late PhD supervisor Dr Jim Lowry.

“Amphipods occur in almost every environment around the world and there are over 10,000 known species, so finding new ones isn’t uncommon,” says Rachael, “but it is always exciting when we do.” 👏

See more here ➡️https://media.australian.museum/media/dd/documents/1885_complete.9102530.pdf

📸 Top: Male Amathillopsis lowry, Bottom: Female Amathillopsis lowry, NIWA.