New Species Discovered in the Philippines

The Philippines hits the world news again with some of the
best stories around.  This time, we're going back to the beauty of nature.

Thousands of newly discovered
crustaceans and mollusks were found in the waters of the Philippines.  A
French-lead team of more than 80 scientists, students and volunteers from the
Philippines, other ASEAN countries, Europe and the United States comprised the
Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project which conducted the most extensive
inventory of these rare sea creatures from 2004-2006.

Philippe Bouchet shows the  specimen of the
Enoplometopus crustacean presented with 50
others to the Philippine National
Museum on
Feb. 5, 2007.  It is one of the thousands of  new
species
found in a two-year research project in
the seas of the Philippines.

In a statement from the project
secretariat, "It is estimated that 150-250 of the crustaceans and
1,500-2,500 of the mollusks are new species… To put it in perspective, the
whole decapod crustacean (shrimp or prawn) fauna of Japan barely exceeds 1,600
species.  The Mediterranean (300 million hectares) has 340 species of
decapods and 2,024 species of mollusks."

The French embassy said the research
of fauna conducted in the deep-sea and coastal ecosystems of Panglao Island
resulted in the discovery of over 1,200 species of decapod or 10-legged
crustaceans and some 6,000 species of mollusks. 

Decapod crustaceans characteristically have five pairs of locomotor appendages
each joined to a segment of the thorax, such as crab, shrimp and lobster.
Marine mollusks are also called shellfish.



The Panglao Marine Biodiversity Project was conducted as a joint effort of the
University of San Carlos and the French National Museum of Natural History from
2004 to 2005. It was funded by the French government and Total Foundation,
which is based in the French capital of Paris.

The team leader, Philippe Bouchet,
of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in France said "Numerous
species were observed and photographed alive, many for the first time."

Bouchet said data was collected
using both academic and traditional methods such as dredging and trawling,
diving and deep-water nets which Panglao fishermen traditionally use. 

Some 50 species of holotype
specimens were presented to the Philippine National Museum on Monday.  A
holotype is single specimen or "illustration" designated as the type
for naming a species or subspecies. It is also used as the basis for naming a
species or subspecies when no type has been selected.

The
Philippines is located in the "Coral Triangle," which contains the
highest number of known marine species.   To push the research
forward, the French embassy has announced a five-year programme to explore the
deep-water fauna of the Philippines titled "Census of Philippines Deep-Sea
Biodiversity."

A
very rare seashell of the Slit shell family (scientific name: Bayerotrochus
philpoppei) which was discovered by Belgian Guido Poppe in early 2006 off Balut
Island in southern Philippines.