Giant isopod
A giant isopod is any of the almost 20 species of large isopods in the genus Bathynomus. They are abundant in the cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Bathynomus giganteus, the species upon which the generitype is based, is often considered the largest isopod in the world, though other comparably poorly known species of Bathynomus may reach a similar size (e.g., B. kensleyi). The giant isopods are noted for their resemblance to the much smaller common woodlouse (pill bug), to which they are related.
| Giant isopods Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Specimens of Bathynomus doederleinii (front) and B. kensleyi (behind) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Superorder: | Peracarida |
| Order: | Isopoda |
| Family: | Cirolanidae |
| Genus: | Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 |
| Species | |
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French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards was the first to describe the genus in 1879 after his colleague Alexander Agassiz collected a juvenile male B. giganteus from the Gulf of Mexico. This was an exciting discovery for both scientists and the public, as at the time the idea of a lifeless or "azoic" deep ocean had only recently been refuted by the work of Sir Charles Wyville Thomson and others. No females were recovered until 1891.
Giant isopods are of little interest to most commercial fisheries, but are infamous for attacking and destroying fish caught in trawls. Specimens caught in the Americas and Japan are sometimes seen in public aquariums.