New species of crab with unusual outgrowths has its name written in the stars

(Pensoft Publishers) A new 'star crab' has been collected from red coral beds in Taiwan and reefs in the Philippines. This astonishing creature is distinct with its carapace and chelipeds covered in pointy protrusions, which become rounder and mushroom-shaped with age to resemble star-like outgrowths and granules. Scientists Dr. Peter Ng and Dr. Ming-Shiou Jeng describe the new species and report another rare crab spotted for the first time from the country, in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news