Marine biologists have discovered a new species of the bobtail squid genus Euprymna in the waters of Japan’s Ryukyu archipelago, a region known for its rich marine diversity.

Bobtail squid (order Sepiolida) are small cephalopods found in shallow coastal waters of the Indo-west Pacific, the east Atlantic coast, and the Mediterranean Sea.

The common name of these marine animals comes from their characteristic rounded (bobbed) mantle.

“Our aim was to describe bobtails of the Ryukyus and set them within the broader systematic framework of Indo-Pacific bobtail squid,” said Dr. Daniel Rokhsar of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University and colleagues.

The researchers surveyed bobtail squid along the Ryukyu archipelago from shallow waters to 20 m depth.

“We found three different species of bobtail squid in these waters, and characterized them using cytochrome oxidase I sequences, transcriptome sequences, and morphology,” they explained.

The two of these species were clearly related to Euprymna pardalota, a bobtail squid known from northern Australia, and Euprymna parva from Sagami Bay in mainland Japan.

The third Ryukyuan species was morphologically and molecularly distinct from other bobtails.

“We formally describe this new species and name it Euprymna brenneri in honor of the pioneering geneticist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Sydney Brenner, founding president of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology,” the study authors said.

“We also propose the common name Brenner’s bobtail in English and Burenā-mimika in Japanese.”

Euprymna brenneri — the eleventh known species in its genus — is a tiny squid, averaging 8.5 to 22 mm in mantle length.

Adult specimens were found in sandy near-shore shallow waters, less than 2 m in depth, among corals and rocks. Their eggs were found in rocky areas near coral reefs in depths of 8-18 m.

“In addition to sequencing its transcriptome, we closely analyzed its morphology,” the scientists said.

“We observed distinctive patterns of suckers on its arms and tentacles.”

A paper describing Euprymna brenneri was published in the journal Communications Biology.

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G. Sanchez et al. 2019. New bobtail squid (Sepiolidae: Sepiolinae) from the Ryukyu islands revealed by molecular and morphological analysis. Commun Biol 2, 465; doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0661-6