A new species of coral has recently been discovered in the Tropical Western Pacific and immediately attracted attention to its singular appearance: hairy and shiny, so much so as to remember the famous character of Star WarsChewbacca. The species was christened Iridogorgia Chewbacca and belongs to the nineteenth -century genre, underclasses of the anthozoa, characterized by polyps with eight tentacles. These organisms are colonies of small polyps, which together constitute the structure of the coral we observe.
The specimens documented so far reach a variable height: the one observed in Hawaii reached 1.20 meters, while other finds measured about 50 centimeters. The long flexible branches, which recall the hair of Chewbacca, can reach up to 40 centimeters and have a lucid and iridescent surface, a feature that inspired the name of the genre, iridogorgia, recalling the changing shades of light. This species prefers lonely living on the ocean seabed, unlike many other species of coral that form large colonies.
It is not the first time that this coral has been sighted
This is not a completely new discovery: the coral had already been spotted in 2006 in Molokaʻi, in Hawaii, and in 2016 in the Marianne pit. However, until now it had never been analyzed in a complete way and classified as a species in its own right. Only thanks to integrated studies of morphology and genetics, conducted by the Team of the key laboratory for biodiversity and marine conservation of Qingdao, it was possible to confirm the uniqueness of the Ironidogorgia Chewbacca.
The discovery of this species adds new details to the knowledge of the biodiversity of the ocean seabed and shows that even areas already studied can reserve surprises. Of the fourteen species of iridogorgia currently known, the Pacific hosts twelve, with ten present in the western tropical waters. Alongside the Chewbacca, the scientists also identified the curved iridogorgia, which did not have the same media attention.
Les Watling, co -author of the study and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, said that observing this coral for the first time was an unforgettable show. The combination of form, iridescence and hairy appearance makes the Chewbacca iridogorgia a unique example of the wonder of the deep backdrops, underlining how much it still remains to be discovered in the abysses of the Pacific.
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