The researchers from Singapore have discovered a new species of cockroach at the bottom of the Indian Ocean which looks like a gruesome creature usually seen in sci-fi movies. Due to its appearance, the 14-legged creature is being dubbed as ‘Darth Vader’, the legendary Star Wars character. The newly found cockroach species has been named “Bathynomus raksasa”.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
The Bathynomus raksasa is a giant isopod in the genus Bathynomus.
The giant isopods are distantly related to crabs, lobsters, and shrimps (which belong to the order of decapods), and are found in the cold depths of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.
The “cockroach of the sea” has 14 legs. It measures around 50 centimetres (1.6 feet) in length, which is big for isopods, which normally do not grow beyond 33 cm (just over a foot). Isopods that reach 50 cm are referred to as supergiant’s.
The only member of the isopod species that exceeds the raksasa in size is the Bathynomus giganteus, which is commonly found in the deep waters of the western Atlantic Ocean.
It is the first ‘supergiant’ isopod species to be discovered in the eastern Indian Ocean. The discovery takes the number of known giant isopods to 20.
