A new supergiant Bathynomus species discovered in Vietnam
11 comments
·February 1, 2025ggm
thaumasiotes
Contra wikipedia, the discussion of the fishery in this paper makes it clear that they're ordinary food.
> they are sent alive to restaurants in Hanoi, where there is a high demand for them. In Hanoi, Bathynomus once was sold at high prices, but this has decreased over the years. In 2017, the price was up to 2 million Vietnamese Dong (ca USD $80) per kilogram, with large individuals reaching 2 kg in weight. As noted above, large specimens of B. jamesi can reach weights in excess of 2.5 kg. Because of these prices, fishermen started to increase the supply, and by 2023 the price dropped to around 1.5 million Vietnamese Dong per kilogram; by early 2024, it was about 1 million Vietnamese Dong (ca USD $40) per kilogram for 1–2 kg individuals.
> In 2017, specimens had to be pre-ordered, and diners had to wait up to a month to collect their Bathynomus specimens in seafood outlets in Hanoi. Today, some seafood markets in Hanoi, Hồ Chí Minh City, and Đà Nẵng City keep up to 30 individuals in their chilled water tanks for customers to buy. It is also common to see advertisements selling “sea bugs” on social network by some seafood stores. Once they are purchased online, the stores will immediately ship the alive animals in icebox to customers. Individuals weighing between 0.6–0.9 kg are the best sellers because the price is more affordable. Large specimens in excess of 2 kg are also sought after as they are less common, and their size makes for an impressive dish. [OK, this is novelty.] In mid-2024, prices in some places in Hanoi have dropped and cost only 0.68 million Vietnamese Dong (ca USD $27) per kilogram.
Steadily increasing supply in the face of high public demand is not the sign of a novelty item.
teractiveodular
As you can tell from the price, these are a very expensive luxury item. The legal minimum wage is VND 1.800,000/month, meaning a kilo at even the lowest wholesale price of "only" 680,000 is over a week's income. At retail, I recall them going for several million dong/kilo a few years back in Danang.
WaitWaitWha
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...
dcx
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...
thaumasiotes
Formal species are focused in the regions where formal biologists work. Outside of those regions, people don't care.
This paper appears to define the new species by physical characteristics, although it also remarks that differential characteristics within the new species "are regarded as intraspecific variation for the time being".
This isn't a question that people approach with any kind of rigor.
Compare the recent paper ( https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%282... ) finding that, despite obvious phenotypic differences, snail darters are "not a species but a subpopulation of the Stargazing Darter" because the authors couldn't find an obvious genetic difference.† Whatever your view of speciation is, it can't accommodate both papers.
† The claim that they must not be a "species" loosely implies that a genetic difference doesn't exist, or that what difference does exist "doesn't count". That second option is not a scientific claim. The first option is possible - it might be that, if you dropped eggs from other stargazing darters into the waters inhabited by snail darters, those eggs would develop into snail darters, with the phenotype being driven by environmental input. But I don't think that's especially likely. The phenotypic difference is more likely evidence that there is a genetic difference, and we just can't see it.
imiric
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.
hughdbrown
This scientific-academic synopsis gives me only the faintest idea of what kind of animal this might be:
> A new supergiant species of Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 from Vietnam is described. Bathynomus vaderi sp. nov. is characterised by its wide, rectangular clypeal region with parallel lateral margins, concave distal margin, and narrowly acute apex; the distally narrowing and posteriorly curved coxa of pereopod 7; and the presence of 11 upwardly curved pleotelson spines.
"Curved coxa of pereopod?" "Curved pleotelson spines?" "Wide, rectangular clypeal region"?
adriand
“The species named after the most famous Sith Lord in the Star Wars movie series, Darth Vader, whose helmet resembles the head of the new Bathynomus species.”
B Vaderi…pretty funny.
robwwilliams
Type specimens appear to be 25 to 30 centimeter long.
metalman
the picture with someone useing there hsnd to open up the mouth parts.....inside of its head or something. thing is one big bug
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.