Crustacean · shrimp

Long-rostrum shrimp

Alvinocaris longirostris

PacificAtlanticIndianSouthernArctic A single ocean

Depth

About 1,100 to 1,600 m, hot vents and cold seeps

Size

Small shrimp, carapace about 5 to more than 10 mm

Diet

Grazer and scavenger

Zone

The sea floor · 200 – 3,500 m

Key facts

• It lives both on the hot vents of the Okinawa Trough and on the cold seeps of Sagami Bay, in Japan.
• Shrimp from these two sites, 2,000 km apart, have almost the same DNA. Their larvae have therefore traveled very far.
• It is found on chimneys, in tubeworm bushes, on mussels and even on sponges.
• A female carries on average a little more than 1,000 eggs.

And the sperm whale?

Researchers think that whale carcasses may have served as stepping stones for its larvae between two distant vents.

Verified sources

1. SeaLifeBase, Alvinocaris longirostris
2. Zootaxa 2015, premier signalement en mer de Chine méridionale
3. PMC, position phylogénétique et dispersion d’Alvinocaris longirostris (Hatoma Knoll)
4. Methou et al. 2023, reproduction des crevettes Alvinocarididae (Univ. Southampton)

In the game: To observe

In the same zone

Methane musselGigantidas childressi (formerly Bathymodiolus childressi) Centenarian tubewormLamellibrachia luymesi Vent octopusVulcanoctopus hydrothermalis Bone-eating snailRubyspira osteovora Methane ice wormSirsoe methanicola (formerly Hesiocaeca methanicola) Bamboo coralKeratoisis sp. (family Isididae, broadly defined)