Russian scientists from the Federal Research Center for the Comprehensive Study of the Arctic named after Academician N.P. Laverov of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Arkhangelsk) and St. Petersburg State University have summed up many years of work - biologists have discovered five species and one genus of freshwater leeches in the Arctic zone.
Experts have been collecting and analyzing samples for ten years on the territory of the Kola Peninsula, Malozemelskaya tundra, the Kanin Peninsula, Kolguev Island, Bolshezemelskaya tundra, the Polar Urals, Yamal, Taimyr, the Putorana Plateau, the Kolyma Highlands and Chukotka.
The work was supported by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Science Foundation.
The results are published in Scientific Reports.
Previously, it was believed that leeches mainly live in more southern latitudes, and in the Arctic their fauna is poor and monotonous.
The study changes these ideas, the biologists say.
It turned out that 14 species of flat leeches, which belong to five genera, live in the Arctic zone.
The northernmost point where scientists were able to detect leeches was the Taimyr Peninsula, 72 ° north latitude.
Five species and one genus were previously unknown to science.
Putorana Plateau
Gettyimages.ru
© Sergey Drozd / 500px
The most interesting find was the Hyperboreomyzon polaris leech, a relict genus and species of leeches discovered by scientists on Kolguev Island and the Putorana Plateau.
This rather large (up to 2 cm long) leech has a dark brown color and is covered with tubercles.
“We could not attribute it to any of the known genera either in terms of morphology or genetics.
This is a relic, very ancient and rare leech.
It is surprising that it was not met by any of the previous scientists.
The probable reason is that this species lives only in the most remote and hard-to-reach areas, such as Kolguev and Putorana.
But it is unlikely that Hyperboreomyson is an exclusively Arctic species.
We assume that this leech has an arctic-alpine range - that is, theoretically it can be found somewhere in the highlands of Asia, for example, in the Sayan Mountains or in Altai, ”one of the authors of the study, director of the Academician Laverov Center, explained in a comment to RT , Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ivan Bolotov.
The way of life and nutrition of this leech is still a mystery to scientists.
It was found in small reservoirs where there are no fish.
Scientists believe that polar hyperboreomyson should be included in the Red Book as a rare species, along with another leech, arctic glossiphonia, which has met only once in a decade of searching, in one of the high mountain lakes of the Polar Urals.