Alabama already had more documented species of crayfish living in its waters than any other state, but that lead was padded this week as two biologists announced the discovery of a new species called Cambarus clairitae, or the zebra crayfish, which so far has been found only in two small streams north of Birmingham.
Guenter Schuster and Christopher Taylor's discovery of the new species was published this week in the peer-reviewed, international scientific journal Zootaxa, which specializes in animal classification.
Schuster said he and Taylor first discovered the crayfish in 2011 during a survey of Gurley Creek, off Highway 79 near the Jefferson-Blount County line, and it was fairly obvious that they had found something new.
"The thing that struck us right off the bat is it was a large crayfish and the coloration was quite unusual with the dark banding," read more
No comments:
Post a Comment