New Life Form Discovered on Lips of Norway Lobster

Danish scientists say they have found a new life form and that it occupies an unusual biological niche--living exclusively on the lips of the Norway lobster. The new creature is so unusual that it constitutes an entirely new phylum, a level of biological classification that currently has only about 35 representatives.

Looking like an animated cold sore on the mouth of its host, Symbion pandora is a simple animal, composed mostly of a funnel with a round mouth, the researchers report in the journal Nature. It is attached to the lobster by a stalk. The creatures, only about one-hundredth of an inch long, have a complex reproductive cycle, producing offspring both sexually and asexually. Sometimes the larvae appear from little buds sprouting on the body, the report says.