Ukrainian zoologists have discovered a new species of creatures (photo)

Ukrainian scientists Andriy and Serhiy Utevskiy have discovered a new species of Antarctic leeches. Millions of years ago, the ancestors of this species migrated from Antarctica to the Arctic and then back to Antarctica. This is reported by the National Antarctic Research Centre.

Ukrainian zoologists Andriy and Serhiy Utevskiy discovered a new species of Antarctic leeches and established that millions of years ago its ancestors migrated first from Antarctica to the Arctic, and then back to Antarctica, - stated in the message.

They did this work in co-operation with foreign colleagues Alexander Bielecki and Joanna Cichocka from Poland, Mario Santoro from Italy and Peter Trontel from Slovenia.

The scientists investigated the distribution of fish parasites, Piscicolidae leeches. Having discovered a new species, zoologists carefully studied its external and internal structure, as well as nuclear and mitochondrial genes

It turned out that the new leech belongs to a group called platybdelines. They are common in the Arctic and adjacent waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. It's the same as finding a polar bear in the Antarctic," said Sergei Utevsky.

The Utevsky brothers are well-known scientists from Kharkiv (V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University).

They have been studying leeches of different regions for many years: Sergiy - Arctic, and Andrey - Antarctic (he was a winterer of the 8th Ukrainian Antarctic expedition and a participant of numerous seasonal expeditions to the station "Akademik Vernadsky").

Now they have discovered 19 species of animals new to science.