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Article: New phylum found residing on lobsters. (Danish researchers discovered a new phylum of metazoans called Symbion pandora on the lips of Norwegian lobsters)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- December 16, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Even the most sophisticated lobster lovers probably give little thought to the creatures' lips. If they only knew what they were missing.
On the mouths of Norwegian lobsters lives a tiny invertebrate that fits into none of the animal kingdom's 35 or so broad taxonomic groups called phyla, claim Peter Funch and Reinhardt Mbjerg Kristensen of the University of Copenhagen. They have named the creature Symbion pandora and have assigned it to an entirely new phylum, which they call Cycliophora.
Their discovery of "what appears to be a new phylum of metazoans has to be the zoological highlight of the decade," asserts Simon Conway Morris of the University of ...