• The new discovery has been published in a paper in ‘Zootaxa’, a major international journal for animal taxonomy.

• What? Discovery of new microscopic (or, tiny) crustacean
• Where? Kavaratti lagoon in Lakshadweep islands
• Family: Laophontidae within Copepoda class
• Name: ‘Indiaphonte bijoyi’
• Significance: A new genus and a new species
• Key Features: semi-cylindrical, depressed body; antennae-like appendages at the front

About New Crustacean:
Family: It belongs to the family Laophontidae under the ‘Copepoda’ class.

• It is considered a new genus because it exhibits unique morphological features that do not match any previously recorded genus with the Laophontidae family.

Species Name: This newly discovered crustacean has been named ‘Indiaphonte bijoyi’.

• Its genus name ‘Indiaphonete’ is named to honour India while its species name ‘bijoyi ’named after S. Bijoy Nandan, Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in Kerala  and former Vice-Chancellor of Kannur University.

Key Features: This crustacean is essentially an  meiofauna that are tiny invertebrate animals less than 1 millimetre (mm) in size living in sediments in aquatic ecosystems.

• It has a semi-cylindrical, depressed body (wider in the middle and tapering towards the posterior) and antennae-like appendages at the front.
• The body length of females ranges from 518 to 772 micrometres(μm), which is slightly larger than body length of males (from 508 to 756 μm).