New species of sea cucumber squirms into the spotlight

[yuiyoshida]

New species of sea cucumber squirms into the spotlight
January 20, 2016

By HIKARI MOKUTA/ Staff Writer Asahi Shimbun

SUSAMI, Wakayama Prefecture--It might look like a discarded overripe banana, but an unassuming creature found on a beach here has been heralded by scientists as a new species of sea cucumber.

The species inhabits shallow waters and probably escaped detection for so long because it remains buried in the sand during the day.

It belongs to the thyone genus, a type of sea cucumber that uses its 10 tentacles to gather food, and has been named “thyone susamiensis” after its place of discovery, the town of Susami.

“I hope visitors realize the richness of Wakayama’s nature and biodiversity,” said Yusuke Yamana, a curator of the Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Natural History in the city of Kainan, near Osaka. "It may look like a common sea cucumber, but it is a rare and newly-found species."

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201601200028