A new supergiant Bathynomus species discovered in Vietnam

This is very funny to me. It took about a decade for them to receive a scientific name – because people were too busy eating them the whole time! The "note on the Bathynomus fishery" really makes the circumstances of this "discovery" quite clear.

Sadly, within the taxonomy itself the authors restrain themselves from sharing their findings on the most delicious parts and preparations of the animal. Darwin would have been disappointed [1], but at least as a species we've gotten our time down from 300 years [2].

1. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/12/430075644/di...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPggB4MfPnk

The fascinating thing about isopods is that they have been around for 300 million years! They roamed a much different Earth along with dinosaurs, survived several extinction events, and are now a delicacy for humans, which may be their biggest threat yet. Wild.

This from the Wikipedia page for bathynomus. A.K.A. giant isopod:

There have been occasional attempts at utilizing giant isopods as novelty food, such as prepared in East Asian cuisine like ramen. Relative to total size, there is not very much "meat" to be harvested. The meat is sometimes described as resembling lobster and/or crab in taste, with a somewhat firmer, chewier texture.

Type specimens appear to be 25 to 30 centimeter long.

That bug is huge! It always fascinates me to learn that we know so little about our world, yet we pretend we are so contemptuously arrogant. The more I learn, the more I understand I am just barely smarter than a rock.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2463826-giant-isopod-na...