NEW ANTARCTIC ANIMALS LOOK LIKE PLANTS

NEW SPECIES OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES
DISCOVERED IN ANTARCTIC LOOK LIKE FLORA

www.news.discovery.com - Six new Antarctic animals that look more flora than fauna have just been described in the journals Polar Biology and Scientia Marina, they are animals, not plants. These marine invertebrates were discovered during expeditions carried out over the past two decades. Two of the new species were found in the Eastern Weddell Sea in the Antarctic region. The new species are all gorgonians, also known as sea whips or sea fans. Different types of these unusual organisms are found throughout the oceans of the world, especially in the tropics, making the latest Antarctic finds all the more unusual. Like an animal known as the sea pen, individual tiny polyps form colonies that are normally erect, flattened, branching, and reminiscent of a fan. Others may be whip-like or bushy. A colony can be several feet high and across, but only a few inches thick. They may be brightly colored, often purple, red, or yellow. Photosynthetic gorgonians can be successfully kept in captive reef aquariums. Two of the new species were named Tauroprimnoa austasensis and Digitogorgia kuekenthali.

The photo shows the Tauroprimnoa austasensis (A)
and Digitogorgia kuekenthali (B). Credit: Zapata-Guardiola and López-González.

“The Tauroprimnoa are characterized by being colonies in the shape of a brush, with simple branches and whose polyps arranged in whorls, have only four marginal scales. The rest of the polyp is covered by five longitudinal rows of scales. The sight is reminiscent of a bull, hence the name,” said University of Seville researcher Rebeca Zapata-Guardiola, who led the study. Four other species were discovered in the Antarctic's Atka Bay, near the South Georgia islands. These new organisms were named: Thouarella bayeri, Thouarella sardana, Thouarella undulata, and Thouarella andeep. The studies have been published in the journal Polar Biology and Scientia Marina. The new species add to our understanding of what limits life on Earth.


Scientists do not stop finding new creatures that live in conditions that challenge the limits of science known by them so far. Each discovery should expand their way of seeing the world, in which - according to Vedic scriptures - there are 8.4 million living species, and among them very few pure devotees of Sri Krishna.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught us that innumerable bounded up jiva souls wonder through 8.400.000 species in the fourteen worlds. There are two classes of jiva: mobile and immobile. ... Among them the human beings are very small in number. There are many persons who are devoid of civilization and virtue and are atheists. One-half of those who are called virtuous have reverence for the Vedas and accepts them verbally. Most of these religious persons who have attachment to the Vedas are workers. On analysis one wise person is found among many thousands of workers. In the same way one liberated persons will be detected among thousands of wise men. Similarly, one devotee of Sri Krishna is very scarce among one crore (ten million) liberated persons.

Śrīla Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaja :
“Guru and Sisya” - Śrī Gopinath Gaudiya Math
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library
http://www.bvml.org/SBBBM/index.htm