Biology student in Leiden discovers new species of shrimp: ‘a dream come true’ | the interior

Shrimp were collected by marine biologist Charles Fransen of Naturalis. Under his guidance and direction from researcher Werner de Gier, Groenhof had the opportunity to examine shrimp.

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New shrimp Odontonia karengcaris

Ⓒ natural bc

boy’s dream

To date, eight species of the genus Odontonia have been known. These shrimp live in the cavities of primitive marine organisms called sea squirts. But DNA testing and careful examination, which required an autopsy of the shrimp, revealed that this specimen was different from the others in the collection. He is missing, among other things, one of the front teeth characteristic of Odontonia. It was the only new shrimp of this type in the Naturalis collection.

Groenehof describes the discovery as “a childhood dream come true”. “It’s great to find a new kind of science, and great to have the result as a scientific publication.”

The researchers described the animal in a publication in the scientific journal Zootaxa. The new shrimp is called Odontonia kerangcaris, after the Indonesian word for shell (kerang) and the Latin for shrimp (caris).