Creepy deep-sea 'vanilla Vader' woodlouse is 25 times bigger than a land louse - Livescience.com

A colossal, creamy yellow woodlouse relative that has a vague resemblance to Darth Vader has been discovered deep below the ocean surface in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study finds. .

This blond behemoth is the latest addition to a group of about 20 deep-sea crustaceans in the genus Bathynomus that live in the benthic zone, the deepest reaches of the ocean, according to a statement (opens in new tab). .

Bathynomus species are sometimes called the "Darth Vader of the Seas (opens in new tab)," perhaps because their heads share similarities with the "Star Wars" character's helmet, Live Science previously reported.

Researchers identified the species from a single specimen caught off the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico in 2017, and they named it Bathynomus yucatanensis after the region.

Bathynomus members look similar, and researchers originally assumed the individual was a known species called B.

giganteus, one of two previously identified species that inhabit the Gulf, until a genetic analysis suggested it was an unknown species sharing the same waters. .

"The ecological diversity of the Gulf of Mexico may be more complex than [previously] thought," study lead author Huang Ming-Chih, an associate professor at the National University of Tainan in Taiwan, told Live Science in an email. .

Bathynomus species are isopods, an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice.

Scavenging in the deep ocean, Bathynomus species are rarely seen by people.

The specimen from the Gulf of Mexico used to identify B.

giganteus until Huang obtained it as part of research investigating Bathynomus.

Both species have the same number of spines at the ends of their bodies, called pleotelson spines, that the researchers infer are an expression of age and maturity.