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Researcher names new species after Keelung

October 14, 2013
Chan Ya-fan (right) and NTOU professor Chiang Kuo-ping hold the issue of the European Journal of Protistology with her new protozoan on the cover. (Courtesy of Chan Ya-fan)

A Taiwan researcher discovered a new species of euglena in waters off the coast of Keelung City, and named the unicellular organism after the northern port.

“Keelungia pulex nova genera et nova species lives in the ocean and eats bacteria,” said Chan Ya-fan, a postdoctoral fellow at National Taiwan Ocean University’s Institute of Marine Environmental Chemistry and Ecology.

“Its striped cell is egg-shaped with two flagella. You need a microscope to see it. It’s one of the smallest and evolutionarily most primitive euglena species in the world. So far it has only been found near Keelung, which makes it very special.”

Chan’s research made the front cover of the European Journal of Protistology earlier this year.

She originally found the unidentified microscopic creature in 2007 in a coastal water sample from Ba Dou Zi while doing her doctoral studies under the supervision of NTOU Center of Excellence for the Oceans Director Chiang Kuo-ping and NTOU Institute of Marine Biology professor Chang Jeng.

In 2010, Chan took her protozoan to the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where they were able to confirm it as a new species and new genus of euglena. (SDH)

Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw

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