By TOMOYUKI YAMAMOTO/ Staff Writer
April 14, 2024 at 07:00 JST
A sea squirt, which divers call “skeleton panda ascidian,” inhabit rock reefs in waters south of Kumejima island in Okinawa Prefecture. (Provided by Naohiro Hasegawa)
Cute but not cuddly, a colony of sea squirts dubbed “Skeleton panda ascidian” by divers after being discovered in waters off Okinawa Prefecture has been identified as a new species.
The sea squirts, which were spotted off Kumejima island, have black markings resembling the face of a giant panda on a transparent body.
White vessels transverse their bodies like a skeleton, evoking a spooky image of a panda graveyard on the ocean bottom.
The sea squirts have caused a buzz on social media for their eye-catching appearance since the images were posted online in around 2017.
Naohiro Hasegawa, a researcher with Hokkaido University, made the findings on the new species of the ascidian. However, one mystery remains.
“I have yet to figure out what purpose their unique appearance serves,” said Hasegawa, who embarked on the project after seeing the images on social media.
Hasegawa was intrigued enough to fly to the southernmost prefecture to dive in waters off the island and collect the ascidian in question.
He analyzed its structure and compared its genetic information with that of other species of sea squirt.
His finding is that the skeleton panda ascidian is a new species belonging to the clavelina category.
It typically grows to 1-2 centimeters tall and generally inhabits a rock 15 to 20 meters below the sea surface.
It is thought to feed on undersea phytoplankton after filtering it.
So far, there are no reports on sightings of the skeleton panda ascidian beyond the rocky reefs off Kumejima.
According to the website of Hokkaido University, about 300 kinds of sea squirts have been known to inhabit the waters around Japan.
Most are observed in the seas near the four main islands.
But there are numerous locations in southern Japan that have yet to be investigated, such as the Nansei island chain dotting between the southern tip of the main island of Kyushu and Taiwan.
Hasegawa plans to continue his research on the classification and study of sea squirts.
His findings on the new species were carried in English on the online edition of the Japanese Society of Systematic Zoology.
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