''Neolithodes yaldwyni'' is a species of

king crab King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtscha ...

which is found in the

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who vi ...

from depths of . It had previously been misidentified as '' Neolithodes brodiei'', and it closely resembles '' Neolithodes capensis''.

Invasive species

''Neolithodes yaldwyni'' – along with ''

Paralomis birsteini ''Paralomis'' is a genus of king crabs. It includes the following species: *''Paralomis aculeata'' Henderson, 1888 *''Paralomis africana'' Macpherson, 1982 *''Paralomis alcockiana'' Hall & Thatje, 2009 *''Paralomis anamerae'' Macpherson, 1988 *' ...

'' – are believed to be an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, and there are fears that

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

could allow it to enter the

Antarctic continental shelf The Antarctic continental shelf is a submerged piece of the Antarctic continent that underlies a portion of the Southern Ocean — the ocean which surrounds Antarctica. The shelf is generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at depths avera ...

within the coming decades and damage the ecosystem's native fauna. This hypothesis has been disputed.

Etymology

"''Neolithodes''" is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and means "new stone-crab", while "''yaldwyni''" is named after New Zealander carcinologist John Cameron Yaldwyn.

References

External links

* King crabs Crustaceans described in 2006 Fauna of the Southern Ocean Taxa named by Shane T. Ahyong {{Crab-stub