KOCHI:
Researchers from the School of Marine Sciences of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) have unearthed a new species of copepodfrom the lagoon waters of Minicoy Island, Union Territory of Lakshadweep.
The new species has been named after its type locality i.e., Minicoy from where it was found, as Tortanusminicoyensis. Dr.Sanu V. Francis, research scholar and Prof. (Dr.) S. Bijoy Nandan, Head of the Marine Biology department were on a taxonomic study on the copepods in the lagoon waters of Lakshadweep which lead to the discovery of the species.
Copepods, of all the marine zooplankton, are the most dominant group in marine subtropical and tropical waters and exhibit great diversity in their morphology and habitats. “Zooplankton copepods are a crucial link between primary producers and higher trophic levels. Any change in copepod populations may disseminate throughout the entire marine ecosystems. Therefore, the study of copepods is of great importance”, said Prof. Bijoy Nandan.
The new species is included in the tropicus group which is mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical waters of Southeast Asia. This discovery assumes significance owing to the fact that only seven species of the genus Tortanus have been found in the Indian Ocean so far, and a new copepod species is now found after a quarter century from the Arabian Sea region.
These species, under genus Tortanus and the sub-genus Atortus, are found on coral islands. The genetic barcodes of the newly discovered organism have been developed and published in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, so that their genetic features can be used by researchers in the rest of the world for comparative studies, and to identify their presence in other marine waters. The discovery has been published in Turkish Journal of Zoology (an international, peer- reviewed scientific journal) this month.
