KOCHI: In a tribute to ‘Missile Man’ Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, researchers from the Marine Biology department of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) named a new species of marine tardigrade that they discovered after the former President.
Named ‘Batillipes kalami’, the new species of tardigrades was found by researchers in the intertidal beach sediments of Mandapam coast, close to Kalam’s birthplace in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.
The researchers’ move aims to honour Dr Kalam’s legacy, his unwavering commitment to science and technology, and his inspirational role in fostering scientific curiosity among young Indians.
Tardigrades, often referred to as water bears, are eight-legged micro-animals found in the water. They are known for extraordinary resilience and survival abilities in extreme environmental conditions. They are considered to be one of the toughest organisms on earth, having survived all five mass extinctions, and are also the first known animal to survive in space. Ecologically, they act as pioneer species by inhabiting new developing environments, attracting other invertebrates to colonise the space.
The newly-discovered species is approximately 0.17mm long and 0.05mm wide, characterised by four pairs of legs. It belongs to the phylum Tardigrada, which comprises more than 1,300 described species. Of them, just 17% are marine species.
Batillipes kalami is the 37th species under the genus Batillipes. Few morphological variations among species and limited number of differential characters make its taxonomy challenging and problematic.
The discovery was made by research scholar Vishnudattan N K and senior professor S Bijoy Nandan of the Marine Biology department during an extensive marine biodiversity survey conducted along the Tamil Nadu coast. The discovery was published in Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific mega journal for animal taxonomists, this month.
“Though studies on tardigrades are increasing worldwide, the phylum remains unexplored. Studies from India are in the evolving stages,” Nandan said.
This is the second time a marine tardigrade is described from Indian waters – the first time from the east coast.
In 2021, the same research team had discovered a marine tardigrade from southwest coast and named it ‘Stygarctus keralensis’ after the state of Kerala.