Cilióforos, new members of the animal kingdom...

1996/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia

As the journal Nature announced in its December issue, scientists at the University of Copenhagen, Peter Funch and Reinhardt Mobjerg Kristens, have discovered an animal that must be classified into a new filum. This new animal is called Synbion pandora and its new filum is named Cyliophora. The surprising thing is not that an animal has been found that must be classified in a new filum, but the place where that animal has been found.

And it is that Pandora Synbion has been found so far in Denmark and Sweden, and not everywhere, but in the mouth of several sorrows trapped in those countries. Probably the reason that this animal has not been known before is its small size, since the larger specimens of Symbion pandora have a somewhat smaller length of half a millimeter.

The peculiarities of this species are the peculiar aspect of its body and its life cycle even more rare and confused. In the opinion of Funch and Kristensen, these characteristics are so peculiar that it was considered that this species does not have a similar species in the whole animal kingdom and that it should be classified into a new filum. The decision, of course, is not final. For this purpose, the film of the forums must be approved by specialists in the field and, if it occurs, will occur after many articles and discussions.

However, whether this species belongs to a new filum or not, the new one is a joy. In those times when most news refers to species that are disappearing, we are forced to hear that some new species have been found.