By Fran Gillespie
A MEMBER of the Qatar Natural History Group (QNHG) has discovered a marine species almost certainly new to science.
In April this year, members of the group were out on a Friday-morning intertidal zone foray, together with some marine scientists. After investigating the mangrove area at Sumaisma in the east, they headed across country for a spot on the north-west coast.
As members trawled the shallow waters and brought captured specimens to be examined and identified by the experts, QNHG member Gabriele Patterson spotted a tiny scarlet and white sea slug.
Their unlovely English name, sea slugs, does not do justice to these soft-bodied marine molluscs, which are among the most beautiful and brilliantly coloured denizens of the ocean. Their other name, nudibranchs – meaning ‘bare lungs’ - isn’t too pretty either.
These slow-moving, carnivorous and sometimes cannibalistic creatures inhabit the sea floor and are widespread throughout the world.
Given their astonishing variety of colours and shapes, and the fact that they keep relatively still, it’s not surprising that sea slugs are regarded as an underwater photographer’s dream. The elegant rippling movement of one group has earned them the name ‘Spanish Dancers’.
Patterson showed her 3cm-long find to Dr Iain Macdonald, a marine scientist working for Qatargas. He knew which group it belonged to, but had never seen one quite like it.
After scanning through all available books and searching the Internet in vain, Dr Macdonald sent pictures of the mystery find to Dr Bill Rudman, an expert based in Australia who runs a website dedicated to sea slugs.
Dr Rudman replied that the sea slug, which belongs to the genus Chromodoris, may well be a species new to science. He added that it bears a resemblance to a specimen that was identified in Pakistan a century ago but has since been lost.
The new species has yet to be named by scientists, a process that will take time. It is one of between 20 and 30 sea slug species known to inhabit the Arabian Gulf. The species Chromodoris cazae is found only in the waters of the UAE and Qatar, which adds strength to the likelihood of the new find being indeed a completely new species.
This is not the first time that a new species has been discovered in Qatar: a recent entomological survey commissioned by the Friends of the Environment Centre and sponsored by several companies in Qatar turned up no fewer than five insects hitherto unknown to science.
But given the unimpeded movements of marine species throughout the Arabian Gulf region, to come across a new specimen is indeed an unusual event.
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