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Bathynomus giganteus   Milne-Edwards, 1879

Giant isopod

Native range | All suitable habitat | Point map | Year 2050
This map was computer-generated and has not yet been reviewed.
Bathynomus giganteus  AquaMaps  Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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No drawings available for Cirolanidae.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Malacostraca | Isopoda | Cirolanidae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Bathydemersal; depth range 310 - 2300 m (Ref. 3113), usually 365 - 730 m (Ref. 80749).  Deep-water

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Indo-West Pacific and Western Atlantic.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 18.0  range ? - ? cm Max length : 50.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 99323)

Short description Morphology

Body depressed without distinct carapace. First thoracic segment fused with head. Sessible eyes; uniramous antennules with reduced exopodites.. First pair of thoracic appendages specialized as maxilliped; other thoracic appendages without exopodites. Shortened abdomen with segments often fused into caudal shield. Pleopods biramous, with flat rami serving as gills. Uropods and telson form fan-like fin, legs natatory.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Largest known isopod. Inhabits the upper and mid slopes of the continental shelf. Bycatch of baited traps (Ref. 80748). This species has mouthparts which are highly adapted to cut and ingest large pieces of food, a large and distensible gut for maximum food ingestion as well as the capacity to store large amounts of lipids in the hepatopancreas (Ref. 80748). Maximum depth range from Ref. 111151. Believed to be a scavenger because of its high incidence in bycatch of trap fisheries (e.g., golden crab, Chaceon fenneri, trap fishery in Northern Gulf of Mexico; see Ref. 80748) (Ref. 3113).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Oviposition in females preceded by parturial molt; functional form of oostegites obtained; females can grow between 1-3 cm BL in first parturial molt; 1 or more pre-parturial molts between the onset of ovarian maturity and first parturial molt.

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Schotte, M., B.F. Kensley and S. Shilling. 1995. (Ref. 3113)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Not Evaluated 

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Human uses

Fisheries: of no interest
| FishSource |

Tools

E-book | Field guide

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 6.4 - 14.4, mean 9.9 (based on 250 cells).
Resilience (Ref. 69278): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (K=0.74).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.