''Neoarctus primigenius'' is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of
tardigrade
Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...
. It is the only species in the genus ''Neoarctus'', which is the only genus in the family Neoarctidae.
The genus and species were first described and named by
Grimaldi de Zio,
D'Addabbo Gallo and
Morone De Lucia in 1992. The authors first placed the genus in the family
Stygarctidae,
but it was moved to a separate family in 1998.
[Bello & Grimaldi de Zio (1998), ''Phylogeny of the genera of the Stygarctidae and related families (Tardigrada: Heterotardigrada).'' Zoologischer Anzeiger, vol. 237, p. 171-183.]
Description
The female holotype is 99 μm long and 36 μm wide.
Distribution
The species has been found at 38 metres depth on the east coast of the island of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
, in the Gulf of
Orosei which is part of the
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy.
Geography
The sea is bounded by the islands of C ...
.
References
Further reading
Arthrotardigrada
Fauna of Sardinia
Endemic fauna of Italy
Animals described in 1992
{{tardigrade-stub