2018/03/01
Keio University Institute for Advanced Biosciences
Associate Professor Kazuharu Arakawa of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at the Keio University Institute for Advanced Biosciences (Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture; Director: Masaru Tomita), in collaboration with Associate Professor Łukasz Michalczyk of Jagiellonian University in Poland and others, has discovered a new species of tardigrade in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, and named it "Shonaichomeimushi" (Latin name: Macrobiotus shonaicus ). Although tardigrade research in Japan has a history of over 100 years, few new species have been discovered in the country, and this is the first new species to be found in Yamagata Prefecture.
The findings of this research were published in the online edition of the American scientific journal "PLOS ONE" at 2:00 p.m. on February 28, 2018 (4:00 a.m. on March 1, JST).
Please see below for the full press release.