Isopod is a large family belonging to the crayfish order. In total, they include more than ten and a half species of crustaceans distributed across all habitats, including in salt water and in various terrestrial forms (Gestel et al., 2018). Among them there are groups of crustaceans that are parasites. For the first time, the remains of isopods were found in 1970 – it was an individual adapted to life in water (Kokalj et al., 2018). In the Mesozoic, isopods already widely inhabited fresh waters (Szlavecz et al., 2018). They are the oldest representatives of the fauna that have not changed over millions of years, successfully surviving in a variety of conditions.
The fact that isopods are good to use in various experiments is related to their habitat. At sea depths of over two hundred meters, where they live, it is dark, cold, and there is very little food (Yang et al., 2020). Life there is supported by pieces of organic matter — the remains of animals and plants that settle to the very bottom. Since the amount of energy produced in this way is surprisingly small for isopods, this gives scientists an exceptional opportunity to study how energy affects the ecosystem at the bottom.
The optimal temperature for isopods is cool, as they choose depths from 160 to 2000 meters for their habitat (Gestel et al., 2018). The best shelter for them is a clay bottom. Isopods have adapted to minimize the body’s loss of energy, allowing them to survive in the cold. The ability to regulate their body temperature is peculiar only to alive isopods. The body temperature of dead animals coincides with the temperature of the substrate. All these morphological and physiological features allow to assert that of all crustaceans, they have most fully adapted to life on Earth.
References
Gestel, C. A., Loureiro, S., & Idar, P. (2018). Terrestrial isopods as model organisms in soil ecotoxicology: A review. Zookeys, 801(3), 127-162.
Kokalj, A. J., Horvat, P., Skalar, T., & Kržan, A. (2018). Plastic bag and facial cleanser derived microplastic do not affect feeding behaviour and energy reserves of terrestrial isopods. Science of The Total Environment, 615(15), 761-766.
Szlavecz, K., Vilisics, F., Tóth, Z., & Hornung, E. (2018). Terrestrial isopods in urban environments: An overview. Zookeys, 801(3), 97-126.
Yang, X., Shao, M., & Li, T. (2020). Effects of terrestrial isopods on soil nutrients during litter decomposition. Geoderma, 376(15), 1-11.