Photos: New Giant "Bearded" Crayfish Species

New Crayfish Species

Photograph courtesy Carl Williams

The discovery of a new species of giant crayfish under a rock in Tennessee's Shoal Creek, which has been studied for 50 years, just goes to show that you don't have to travel to exotic rivers and wetlands in Asia and Africa to find species that are new to science.

The southeastern United States is, in fact, a hotbed of aquatic species diversity, with small populations of unique species living among the hundreds, if not thousands, of springs, rapids, pools, rivers, and wetlands that carve through and pockmark the region, especially in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

The Southeast is home to the largest array of freshwater mussels on Earth; an abundance of freshwater snails, crayfish, and turtles; and nearly 700 of the approximately 1,000 species and subspecies of U.S. freshwater fish.

(Read about freshwater biodiversity in the southeast in National Geographic magazine.)

"We spend millions of dollars every year on federal grants to send biologists to the Amazon, to Southeast Asia—all over the world looking for and studying the biodiversity of those regions," said Eastern Kentucky University biological sciences professor Guenter Schuster in a statement. Schuster is one of the biologists who found the new species. "But the irony is that there's very little money that is actually spent in our own country to do the same thing. And there are still lots of areas right here in the U.S. that need to be explored."

Published January 22, 2011

Crayfish Competition

Photograph courtesy L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois

Barbicambarus simmonsi is almost twice the size of a typical crayfish found in the southeastern United States. Researchers got word of a couple of sightings—the first in 2009—and scoured the Shoal Creek.

The crayfish's closest genetic relative can grow to almost lobster-size.

A new freshwater species is a refreshing discovery in a region plagued by pollution and development. Because of these pressures, and others, freshwater species around the globe are disappearing at a rate four to six times faster than animals on land or at sea.

(See more photos of aquatic species.)

Published January 22, 2011

River Reconnaissance

Photograph courtesy Guenter Schuster

Researchers set up a seine downstream of an area of interest and then flip rocks and disturb the sediment to se what washes into the net. Here, University of Illinois biologists Chris Taylor and Emily Hartfield seine the Buttahatchee River, Marion County, Alabama. photo by Guenter SchusterUniversity of Illinois biologists Chris Taylor, who found the new species, and Emily Hartfield look for critters in the Buttahatchee River, Alabama.

They turn up rocks and disturb sediment to see what flows into a collection net downstream.

Eastern Kentucky University's Schuster was with Taylor when they discovered Barbicambarus simmonsi in Tennessee. "We had worked so hard and long that we were ready to give up and find another site," Schuster said in a press release. "And we saw this big flat boulder underneath a bridge and so we said, 'OK. Let's flip this rock, just for the heck of it; this will be our last one.' And sure enough, that's where we got the first specimen."

After researchers found the first crayfish, a male, they uncovered a second, this time a female.

Published January 22, 2011

Crayfish Detail

Photograph courtesy L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois

The giant new crayfish is part of a genus known for its unusual "bearded" antennae, called setae, which could help the crayfish find its way around or find food.

There are about 600 known species of crayfish in the world, according to the University of Illinois' Taylor. Tennessee and Alabama are hotspots of crayfish diversity.

Published January 22, 2011

Freshwater Flows

Photograph courtesy Guenter Schuster

The new crayfish species was found in Shoal Creek, whose waters eventually feed into the Tennessee River, a main artery in the southeastern United States that starts in Tennessee and runs through Alabama and Kentucky before joining the Ohio River.

(See more river photos.)

Published January 22, 2011