Dubai: A frightful-looking ‘sea cockroach’ discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean has been identified as belonging to a new species and the internet cannot stop shuddering at its pictures.
Researchers from Singapore found the 14-legged creature during a deep sea survey off of the coast of Banten, Western Java, Indonesia back in 2018.
Now, analysis has confirmed that it is a new species of giant isopods. The creature has been given the formal name of 'Bathynomus raksasa'.
The animal, whose head shape has earned it the nickname of 'Darth Vader', a character from the Star Wars’ movies, lives on the ocean bed and survives by scavenging for the remains of dead marine animals.
They are also capable of going long periods of time without any food.
The picture of the deep-sea isopod has triggered several responses on the internet for its gruesome looks.
Twitter user @MasterJediMara shared a picture comparison of Darth Vader and the creature, and wrote: “Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Darth Vader sea cockroach. Somehow I knew he’d return as vermin. Impressive. #StarWars #DarthVader”
Tweep @septian wrote: “’One of the animals was a deep sea cockroach affectionately known as Darth Vader Isopod. This supergiant isopod is now bestowed with the scientific name Bathynomus raksasa.’ (darth vader isopod).”
The 2018 marine survey was conducted by Peter Ng of the National University of Singapore and his colleagues, during which they explored 63 sites over two weeks.
The expedition, which was a collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, collected thousands of specimens from the depths using trawling, dredging and various types of seafloor coring devices.
