Scientists discovered a new species of crab that can climb trees like a pro. This crab is the native species of Western ghat mountain of Kerala, southern India. This newly discovered species showed several distinctive characteristics that made them separate from other congeners.
In the journal of Crustacean Biology, researchers distinguished their physical characteristics. It’s lower abdominal ventral shell, upper hard shell and the structure of reproductive organs, the shape of their legs are truly different from the others. Scientists officially and scientifically named this species as Kani Maranjandu.
Lead scientist of the exploration team Dr. Appukuttannair Biju Kumar from the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries said in his report,“It also highlights how little we know about the actual biodiversity that resides in these forests and the efforts that must still be made to find and study the many undoubted new species that still live there”. western ghat mountain of India is known for its biodiversity hot spot for plants and animals. Dr. Kumar categorized the crab as an “Arboreal crab” that means a crab species that lives in trees.
According to Phys, it is one of the poorly studied species of crab that belongs to the freshwater biodiversity. For the first time in history, researchers reported about an arboreal crab from this region. Dr. Kumar and his team started their exploration in 2014 and caught their first specimen on September 5, 2016.
The sightings of the crab were first reported by the peoples of the local tribe named Kanikkaran. They also helped researchers to catch the crab. To give respect and honor to the tribe, researchers named their genus as”kani” and in Malayalam “Maranjandu” means tree crab. Now this species is under the research of Zoological Survey of India. University of Kerala’s Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries also kept the specimen at their museum collection for further research.
