Turkish Professor names two newly discovered species Denktaş and Lefkoşa

Turkish Professor Okan Külköylüoğlu, head of the Biology Department at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University in Turkiye, has named two newly discovered species in Cyprus after Denktaş and Lefkoşa. 

According to a report on halktv.com.tr, Külköylüoğlu visited Cyprus in 2022 to conduct fieldwork as part of his graduate student Ahmet Özdilek’s thesis. During the trip, he collected samples from over 80 different aquatic environments using scientific methods.

After studying the samples and comparing them with existing research, they discovered two new species of ostracods, which are tiny, microscopic, shell-covered creatures. These species were introduced to scientific literature as Eucypris lefkosaensis and Eucypris denktasi, the latter named after Rauf Denktaş.

Külköylüoğlu’s findings were published in September in Zootaxa, an international journal that specialises in animal classification. He explained that they explored 80 water sources during their research and collected data using scientific sampling methods. Both new species were found in Lefkoşa.

The most noticeable difference between these two species is in their shell structure, Külköylüoğlu added. He mentioned that these animals are quite small, measuring between 0.6 to 0.7 millimetres, not even a full millimetre in length. They use specially developed needles to separate the shells, and the soft tissue inside is then placed in a special solution called lactophenol for further identification.