New species of crab named in honour of Cusat professor

Crab discovered from Matla river in West Bengal; only five species of the genus have been identified worldwide

A team of researchers, who discovered a new species of crab from the Kochi backwaters, has named it in honour of Prof S. Bijoy Nandan, Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).

The crab, which belongs to the Pilumnidae family, has been named ‘Aniptumnus bijoy’ or ‘Bijoy’s crab’. The researchers decided to name it in honour of Prof. Nandan in view of his significant contributions to the field of marine biology and wetland ecology.

The team was led by Hari Praved, senior researcher in the department of Marine Biology at Cusat and included Dr. Regina Hershey, research fellow in the department of Zoology at Hindu College, Changanassery, and Dr. Jose Christopher Mendoza of the National University of Singapore, according to an official release.

The crab was discovered from the Matla river in West Bengal. Only five species of the genus have been identified worldwide. The crab is found in mangrove forests and associated backwaters and swamps. The study was published in the international research journal Zootaxa.