From complex to simple

2008/05/26 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Zoologia

A crustacean has been a mystery to marine biologists: they knew the larva, a creature called larva Y, but they had no idea what the mature form was like. To solve the mystery, a group of Danish biologists take the larva and raise it in the laboratory of the University of Copenhagen. The result is surprising: the animal resulting from metamorphosis is a much simpler way of life than the larva

itself. Adult crustaceans have no digestion or nervous system. It is a living simple in the form of a sack. And what happens is that it is very rare to create in nature a complex and simple structure. Biologists have proposed an explanation if the mature form of crustacean is parasitic, perhaps of corals. However, they will have to prove if that is true; the resolution of the mystery has created a new mysterio.Images:

Henrik Glenner