In 2022, staff from Hanoi University purchased a selection of ’supergiant’ isopods at a seaford market in Quy Nhơn City in Vietnam, intrigued by a burgeoning market for the deep sea crustaceans as a delicacy.
Among them was a species unknown to science at the time. National University of Singapore carcinologist Peter Ng and colleagues have now formally described the novel sea bug in a new paper.
As the head of the animal’s carapace resembles the iconic scifi helmet adorned by Star Wars’ infamous Darth Vader, Ng and team named the giant woodlice relative Bathynomus vaderi.
Leave a reply