Author: ruffatt1@illinois.edu

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Scientists seeking rare river crayfish aren’t just kicking rocks

From left, natural resources and environmental sciences professor Eric Larson, graduate research assistant Christopher Rice and INHS curator of fishes and crustaceans Christopher Taylor used old-school methods and newer techniques to study a rare crayfish. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois News Bureau.

INHS and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers are gathering the population size and distribution data needed to determine whether the cold-water crayfish (Faxonius eupunctus) should be listed as an endangered species.

Read the full story from the University of Illinois News Bureau here.

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New species named after Curator of Crustaceans

Cambarus taylori, named in honor of Dr. Chris Taylor, INHS Curator of Crustaceans

Three new species of crayfishes, endemic to the Upper Kentucky River watershed in Kentucky, have been described: Cambarus taylori, named in honor of Dr. Chris Taylor, Curator of Crustaceans at the Illinois Natural History Survey; Cambarus guenteri, named in honor of Dr. Guenter Schuster, retired professor of biology at Eastern Kentucky University; and Cambarus hazardi, named after Oliver Hazard Perry and the town of Hazard, Kentucky.

These new species were described in a paper published in Zootaxa, accessible here.

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Spinywrist Crayfish discovered

Say hello to the Spinywrist Crayfish, a new species discovered by Chris Taylor (INHS), Cody Rhoden (INHS), and Guenter Schuster! Its coloration is extremely variable across its geographic range—the lower Tennessee River drainage of south-central Tennessee and northern Alabama.

The journal article was published in Zootaxa and is available here.

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Biologists discover giant crayfish species right under their noses

It is unusual for aquatic biologists to miss a big species like Barbicambarus simmonsi. The population of this crayfish appears to be very sparse, however. Individuals were usually found under the biggest rocks in the deepest parts of a stream. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois News Bureau.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. – Two aquatic biologists have proven that you don’t have to travel to exotic locales to search for unusual new species. They discovered a distinctive species of crayfish in Tennessee and Alabama that is at least twice the size of its competitors. Its closest genetic relative, once thought to be the only species in its genus and discovered in 1884 about 130 miles away in Kentucky, can grow almost as big as a lobster. …

Read the full story from the University of Illinois News Bureau here.