Recent research has discovered a new species of coral in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the Chewbacca iridogorgia. The name that honors the Star Wars character is linked to his hairy appearance, very similar to Chewbaccathe most famous Wookie in the world.
The new species was discovered by a Chinese research group of the key laboratory for biodiversity and marine conservation of Qingdao and published in the magazine Zootoxa. It belongs to the genus of the iridogorgia, and to the Phylum cnidaria, which makes it a distant relative of jellyfish and corals, with which they also share the same class, the anthozoa. Typical organisms of sea depths, are Corals in all respects: I’m not a unique organism, but one community. In fact, hundreds of thousands or even millions of small organisms, i polypswhich constitute the structure that we call coral. To want to be precise, theChewbacca iridogorgia is a Octocoralloan underclasse of the anthozoa whose polyps have eight tentacles (Simple, right? But do not confuse it with the octopus, which belongs to the mollusk phylum, completely different).
How the “Cowbacca coral” is done
Even if from the photos it seems high and majestic like the valiant chewbacca, in reality the specimens of Chewbacca iridogorgia so far documented they slightly exceed the meter in height: the one in Hawaii came to 1.20 meterswhile that of 2016 was barely reached 50 cm. The long “hairy arms” and floating, instead they reach up to 40 cm.
In addition to the “soft” aspect, they distinguish them the surface shiny to particular iridescence (from which we hypothesize that the name of the whole genre, iridogorgia: iris, derives from in fact, derives from iristerm indicating a body with iridescent shades). According to the scientists who were lucky enough to see it, like Les Watling, co -author of the study “It is an unforgettable show».
Unlike its distant cousins, many of whom live in the Great coral reeftheChewbacca iridogorgia, He prefers to be alone, like a (or almost) lonely giant on the ocean seabed.
The previous sightings of theChewbacca iridogorgia and the new discoveries
In reality, it is not the first time that this species makes its appearance. Had already been spotted, precisely by the co -author of the study Les watlingin 2006 off the coasts of Molokaʻi, an island of Hawaii and subsequently in 2016 in the Fossa delle Marianne. However, it is the first time that it is found in the Tropical Western Pacific Ocean. Above all, it is the first time that it is analyzed, analyzes that have allowed to categorize it as one species in its own right. The traditional method of classification and identification based on the direction of growth of corals (hourly or anti -eral), in this case it was not sufficient and the scientists of the Qingdao laboratory had to resort to Integrated methods between morphological and genetic analysiswhich have also made it possible to discover the enormous genetic variability of these nineteels.
Of the fourteen species of iridogorgia currently known, in fact, the Pacific hosts twelve, Ten of which the western western Pacific inhabitedwhere Chewbacca was not the only new discovery of this research. At his side, theCurve iridogorgiawhich is finding less honors of the chronicles, perhaps because it does not resemble a famous person: when nepotism also affects corals!
