Lurking in the dark underwater caves off of Southern California’s Catalina Island, a new species of shrimp-like creature has officially been documented for the first time. Scientists collected both a male and female of the new Skeleton Shrimp species. Skeleton shrimp are actually caprellid amphipods, not shrimp, but the two do look similar. Lead study author José Manuel Guerra-García, a caprellid expert at the University of Seville in Spain, realized the “shrimp” were a never-before-recognized species during a 2010 visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa that housed the previously collected specimens.

These peculiar creatures look just like skeletons and move much the same way an inch-worm does. Can we just stop and imagine this creature dragging its eerily thin frame across the cave floor, searching for prey in the darkness. Doesn’t that sound like a lovely encounter you’re juts dying to have?

Luckily, they’re harmless itty-bitty creatures that don’t actually bother anyone. Well, unless you count envisioning their creeping bodies inching closer and closer… then you might be just a tad bit bothered.

Original story via Live Science.

Liropus, cave amphipod, Cave-dwelling Shrimp, shrimp-like creature

photo: SINC