A unusual marine creature with panda-like markings and a skeleton-like body has been discovered in the waters off Japan’s Kumejima Island. According to Next Shark, it has been formally registered as a new species and named “Clavelina Ossipandae”.
Clavelina, which means “little bottle,” and Ossipandae, which refers to its skeleton and panda-like traits. It’s less than an inch in size.
The water mammal originally piqued scientists’ interest when a party of divers discovered it in Okinawa. Some Japanese netizens affectionately nicknamed it “Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt” because of its black-and-white patterns.
The study was conducted by third-year doctorate student Naohiro Hasegawa of Hokkaido University and published in the Journal of Species Diversity.
He collected specimens and samples to examine the creature’s morphology and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
“The white parts that look like bones are the blood vessels that run horizontally through the sea squirts’ gills,” the study’s authors wrote. “The black parts on the head that look like a panda’s eyes and nose are just a pattern, and we don’t really know why the pattern is there.”
