Scientists find Giant Sea Cockroaches in the Eastern Indian Ocean

Scientists find Giant Sea Cockroaches in the Eastern Indian Ocean

      20-07-2020

On July 19, 2020, the scientists reported the discovery of first “Super Giant Isopod” species. It was found in the eastern Indian Ocean.

Highlights

A new species of cockroach has been found deep in the Indian Ocean by a team of researchers from Singapore. The researchers found the species when they were working on the unexplored waters of the Indian Ocean in Banta. Bantan is in the southern coast of West Java in Indonesia.

The newly found cockroach species has been named “Bathynomus raksasa”.


About the species

The cockroach belongs to the genus Bathynomous. It has 14 legs and uses them to crawl along the bed of oceans in search of food. It measured 50 centimeters in length and is big for isopods. In general, the isopods that reach a length of 50 centimeters are generally referred to as supergiants. The rakshasa eats dead marine animals such as fish and whales. It can also go for long periods without food. This is a common trait the rakshasa shares with cockroaches.


Significance of the discovery

So far, the scientific community has found five super giant species. Two of them were found in western Atlantic. This is the first discovery from Indonesia


Mission

A 31-member group from the National University of Singapore conducted the project. The project studied 63 sites in weeks and returned with 12,00 specimen from the deep sea. This included sponges, jellyfish, worms, molluscs, starfish, crabs and urchins. It also included 12 other unknown species.



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