{"id":120133,"date":"2026-08-20T13:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=120133"},"modified":"2026-08-20T13:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:28:14","slug":"psammophaga-holzmannae-and-psammophaga-sinhai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/psammophaga-holzmannae-and-psammophaga-sinhai\/","title":{"rendered":"Psammophaga holzmannae and Psammophaga sinhai"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Psammophaga holzmannae and Psammophaga sinhai Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists from Pune\u2019s Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) recently discovered two new species of microscopic marine organisms named Psammophaga holzmannae and Psammophaga sinhai.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Psammophaga holzmannae and Psammophaga sinhai<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are two new species of <\/span><b>microscopic marine organisms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that <\/span><b>selectively pick up <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>swallow specific mineral grains from the seafloor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were found at <\/span><b>Rajapuri Creek <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in Raigad district along <\/span><b>Maharashtra\u2019s Konkan coast.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Psammophaga <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a <\/span><b>type of foraminifera,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a group of <\/span><b>microscopic organisms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> commonly <\/span><b>found in oceans.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>name <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">comes from Greek words meaning <\/span><b>&#8216;sand eater&#8217;.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike many foraminifera that have hard, multi-chambered shells, <\/span><b>these organisms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have just <\/span><b>one chamber<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a <\/span><b>soft wall made mainly of very fine clay particles.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The newly identified organisms are<\/span><b> extremely small<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. P. holzmannae measures between 103 and 246 micrometres, while P. sinhai is larger, measuring between 279 and 448 micrometres.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>two species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also<\/span><b> differ in shape<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and also in <\/span><b>the way they store mineral grains.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>P. holzmannae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is <\/span><b>oval to almost round<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and has an <\/span><b>orange or yellowish interior. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> mineral grains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it swallows are mainly <\/span><b>kept near <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an<\/span><b> opening called the aperture.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>P. sinhai is longer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and may look <\/span><b>like a droplet<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Its <\/span><b>mineral grains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>spread throughout the body.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most interesting discovery was what the <\/span><b>organisms choose to eat.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both species selectively take in <\/span><b>heavy minerals containing titanium and iron<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. These include ilmenite and magnetite.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is important because these minerals <\/span><b>occur only in small amounts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the surrounding sediment.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>So how do they do it?\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psammophaga <\/span><b>uses thin, temporary hair-like extensions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> called <\/span><b>granuloreticulopodia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These extend from the aperture and help the organism interact with the surrounding sediment.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists believe these extensions may <\/span><b>help the organism detect differences between mineral grains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, although the exact mechanism is still not known.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/pune\/tiny-sand-eaters-big-discovery-pune-scientists-uncover-2-new-marine-species-along-konkan-coast\/articleshow\/133358158.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psammophaga holzmannae and Psammophaga sinhai are two new species of microscopic marine organisms that selectively pick up and swallow specific mineral grains from the seafloor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":120110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9655],"class_list":["post-120133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-psammophaga-holzmannae-and-psammophaga-sinhai","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120133"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120174,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120133\/revisions\/120174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}