‘Coral pink’ sea creature — just millimeters wide — discovered. It’s a new species
On the colorful coral reefs in the South China Sea, countless fish, crustaceans and marine creatures swim in and out of the delicate structures.
With so many animals calling the reef home, it could be easy to miss a tiny, pink crab tucked against the coral.
Less than a centimeter wide, the crab appeared fluffy and caught the eyes of a biological scuba dive team, according to a July 9 study published in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
The micro-crab was photographed and then taken up to the surface for a closer look.
It’s a new species.
Gothus teemo is a “small species,” researchers said, with all known specimens less than half an inch wide. Their bodies are wider than they are long and are divided into two triangular lobes.
The crabs have an “overall white to coral pink,” and their bodies, or carapaces, are “adorned with symmetrical black to brown stripes,” according to the study.
The claws of the crab are slightly red in color, but the immovable finger portion of the claws has a brownish-black coloration, researchers said.
The entirety of each crab is also covered in short setae, or bristles, that make it appear as if the crabs are soft, or fluffy.
This, combined with the striped pattern, gives the new species its name.
The name for the genus, Gothus, comes from the game of Go, popular in China, “alluding to the intermingled black and white patterns on the carapace,” researchers said, and the suffix “-thus” in line with other genuses in the larger Xanthidae family.
The species name, teemo, references a character from popular multiplayer online battle video game League of Legends, according to the study.
“This character, modeled after a raccoon, has a fluffy, diminutive stature with a brown and white intermingled fur coat,” researchers said. “This alludes to the new species’ small size, densely covered short setae, and brown-striped coloration.”
The species lives in the crevices of shallow coral reefs, according to the study, and so far has only been found around Triton Island of the Xisha (Paracel) Islands, Meiji (Mischief) Reef and the Nansha (Spratly) Islands, according to the study.
The South China Sea is a contested body of water in southeastern Asia that borders Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
This story was originally published July 16, 2024 at 2:40 PM with the headline "‘Coral pink’ sea creature — just millimeters wide — discovered. It’s a new species."
