Date: September 7, 2016
Source: Pensoft Publishers
Shimmering carapaces and rattling
claws make colourful freshwater crabs attractive to pet keepers. To answer the
demand, fishermen are busy collecting and trading with the crustaceans, often
not knowing what exactly they have handed over to their client.
Luckily for science and nature
alike, however, such 'stock' sometimes ends up in the hands of scientists, who
recognise their peculiarities and readily dig into them to make the next
amazing discovery. Such is the case of three researchers from University of New
South Wales, Australia, The Australian Museum, Sun Yat-sen University, China,
and National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, who have found a new species and
even a new genus of freshwater crab, and now have it published in the open
access journal ZooKeys.
Knowing about the growing demand
for eye-catching freshwater crabs from southern China, the authors took a look
at the ornamental fish market to eventually identify an individual with
unusually structured male gonopod, which in crustaceans is a swimming appendage
modified to serve as a reproductive organ. Having their interest drawn by the
peculiar crab, lead author Chao Huang managed to persuade the fish dealer to
let them survey the collection site located in northern Guangdong, southern
China.
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