They record for the first time how an alligator is devoured by giant isopods

A team from the Marine Consortium of the University of Louisiana (USA) led by Craig McClain and Clifton Nunnally placed three dead alligators between 2 and 2.5 meters in different locations of the Gulf of Mexico to study how the materials of the terrestrial environments is enriching food webs in ocean environments.

The experiment was videotaped in February by a remotely operated vehicle at a depth of 2,000 meters. The record showed that giant isopods in deep water were quick to detect the bodies of reptiles that could feed them. These crustaceans, the size of a football, arrived less than 24 hours after the alligators were placed on the seabed and, using their mighty jaws, tore the reptilian's hard skin and swallowed his flesh until they can barely move.

Isopods have a huge storage capacity for accumulated energy. So, after such a meal, they will not have to feed themselves for months or even years.

This is the first time scientists have used this method to "examine the role of alligators in biodiversity and the carbon cycle in the deep oceans," McClain explained in the Deep Sea News portal.

Experiments with alligators can help study the food webs of the past, as these animals are an approximation close to the large marine reptiles that lived millions of years ago, such as ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.

RT.