New species of sea angel discovered off Toyama
(Mainichi Japan)
A fifth species of clione, a type of sea slug known as a "drift ice angel," has been discovered in the depths of Toyama Bay, the University of Toyama and the Shellfish Museum of Rankoshi in Hokkaido announced on Oct. 12.
Near Japan, cliones had previously only been seen in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Hokkaido. The find in the waters off Toyama Prefecture is the furthest south the creatures have been seen in the Northern Hemisphere.
The clione was discovered in August 2016 about 1,000 meters beneath the sea by Zhang Jing, a professor at the University of Toyama Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Education, and other researchers. Cliones are 0.5 to 5 millimeters long and swim by moving their ciliary bands, hair-like vibrating structures that look like wings.
