Antarctic krill

Antarctic krill
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Euphausiacea
Family:	Euphausiidae
Genus:	Euphausia
Species:	E. superba
Binomial name
Euphausia superba Dana, 1850
Synonyms [2]
Euphausia antarctica Sars, 1883 Euphausia australis Euphausia glacialis Euphausia murrayi Sars, 1883

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It is a small, swimming crustacean that lives in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000 individual animals per cubic metre.^[3] It feeds directly on minute phytoplankton, thereby using the primary production energy that the phytoplankton originally derived from the sun in order to sustain their pelagic (open ocean) life cycle.^[4] It grows to a length of 6 centimetres (2.4 in), weighs up to 2 grams (0.071 oz), and can live for up to six years. It is a key species in the Antarctic ecosystem and in terms of biomass, is one of the most abundant animal species on the planet – approximately 500 million metric tons (550 million short tons; 490 million long tons).^[5]