A giant isopod collected off Puerto Rico in the late 1980s and stored in a German university collection as Bathynomus giganteus has been formally described as a different species: Bathynomus tuebingoborikensis. The finding came not from a new expedition, but from a fresh examination of the preserved specimen, including its anatomy documented with micro-CT.
What was mislabeled?
The specimen is a dried female giant isopod held by the University of Tübingen’s Paleontological Collection as holotype GPIT-PV-94341. Adolf Seilacher acquired it at a marine research station in Puerto Rico in the late 1980s and transferred it to Tübingen. The authors report that it had been trapped at 500 metres depth. It was identified as B. giganteus, a classification that appeared consistent with that species’ reported range.
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In a paper published in Scientific Reports on 8 October 2026, Ingmar Werneburg and Benedikt Kästle describe the specimen as the holotype of B. tuebingoborikensis. The University of Tübingen-provided account reports its length as 32.2 cm (12.7 in); that measurement is attributed to the university account rather than the paper’s reported specimen details. University of Tübingen-provided account via Phys.org; the species description in Scientific Reports.
How did scientists recognize a new species?
The authors compared the specimen’s morphology—the observable form and structure of its body—with characters used to distinguish giant isopods. They examined its clypeus, mouthparts, uropods, pleotelson and legs, and used micro-CT imaging to document internal and fine anatomical detail. The paper highlights the mouthparts as useful for classification within Cirolanidae, the family to which Bathynomus belongs.
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The diagnostic description includes 11 spines on the pleotelson, the terminal body segment, and seven coupling hooks on the maxilliped, a pair of appendages involved in feeding. Those are anatomical features recorded for this specimen, not counts of animals or population traits. The new species determination is based on morphology; the paper does not report DNA testing as the basis for identifying this specimen.
Why does the name refer to Tübingen and Puerto Rico?
Tuebingoborikensis joins Tübingen, where the specimen is held, with Boríken, identified in the paper as the indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico. The name connects the collection’s location with the specimen’s Caribbean provenance.
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What does the study suggest about giant isopod evolution?
Werneburg and Kästle offer a preliminary evolutionary interpretation based on morphological characters. They propose a Caribbean origin for Bathynomus and dispersal across ocean basins. In the University of Tübingen-provided account, co-author Ingmar Werneburg describes a scenario in which the Isthmus of Panama was open, leaving a strait between North and South America, and marine animals spread westward, initially as far as Japan.
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Why can a museum collection change what scientists know?
A specimen can be correctly preserved and available for study while its identity remains mistaken. Here, the animal had been in a university collection for decades under an existing species name; detailed re-examination made it possible to recognize and formally describe a different species. The case shows how collection work can reveal diversity without a newly collected animal.
It does not establish how often museum specimens are misidentified or how many undescribed species remain in collections. The finding is one concrete example of why historical specimens remain scientifically useful: future researchers can revisit them with more detailed anatomical methods and updated taxonomic comparisons.
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