Science / Medicine : Rare Shrimp-Like Creatures Found

Australian scientists have discovered a rare group of tiny shrimp-like crustaceans, previously unknown in the Southern Hemisphere, in a remote cave in the northwest of Australia.

The species, which belongs to the archaic group thermosbaenacea, is thought to have developed more than 200 million years ago, Gary Poore of the Museum of Victoria said.

The shrimp-like animal, only one-tenth of an inch long, is only one of 16 known species of thermosbaenaceans. They are of considerable interest because their distribution is so scattered, according to Bill Humphreys of the Western Australia Museum in Perth, who found the animal.

The animal, which lives on the mud at the bottom of caves, was collected by Humphreys from fresh water in a cave on the semi-arid North West Cape peninsula in Western Australia. The thermosbaenacea is thought to have dispersed by hitching a ride on the continental plates as they drifted around the world after the breakup of the ancient super continents of Pangea and then Gondwana.