Thaindian News

April 16, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): A fresh type of leech, which plagues human beings, has been unearthed by the investigators. It has been named Tyrannobdella rex, which means tyrant leech king owing to its massive teeth. At 130 microns high, its teeth were somewhat wider than the width of a human hair. The investigators have mentioned that the leech can go into the body’s orifices of people and animals to attach it to the mucous membranes located in the nose.

This sort of leech is found in the isolated parts of the Upper Amazon. It was first discovered hiding in the nose of a 9-year-old Peruvian girl three years ago. The girl was said to be taking habitual dips in the lakes and rivers for bathing in the Amazonian region of the country and it is alleged that the leech might have got into her nose during the dip. Dr. Renzo Arauco-Brown, from the School of Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, was the medical doctor, who hauled out the leech, preserved it and sent it to a zoologist in America.

The zoologist, Dr Mark Siddall, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, brought together a team of examiners, who analyzed the leech’s features and DNA. It had some very abnormal features, including just one single jaw, eight very huge teeth and extremely small genitalia.

The DNA investigation also divulged that a common ancestor of this group may have resided when the continents were pressed together into a single land mass called Pangaea. Scientists deem that there could be as many as 10,000 species of leeches throughout the globe.