Like many deep-sea animals, giant isopods (genus Bathynomus) look like they’re ready to star in a B-horror movie. Yet, they’ve become charismatic marine ambassadors in aquariums around the world—in some places, you can even pet one! Now, they’re also helping scientists better understand how species adapt to the dark depths, thanks to a high-quality genome sequence published May 13 in BMC Biology.
The Chinese research team behind the new assembly writes that isopods are great for studying adaptation because representatives of the speciose group (more than 10,000 species have been described to date) can be found all over the world in extremely diverse habitats, from tropical forests to the bottom of the sea. Indeed, the oceanic seafloor is considered an especially demanding habitat, and any organism living there must cope with freezing temperatures, intense pressures, deep darkness, and limited food. Giant isopods are one of the dominant invertebrates in this ...
