The newly identified Odontonia bagginsi shrimpCHARLES FRANSENResearchers have identified two new species of shrimp, one of which has a name inspired by the hairy feet of Bilbo Baggins, a character from The Lord of the Rings. With hobbit-like hairy feet, the shrimp was named Odontonia bagginsi.

This particular species was found inside the cavity of its symbiotic host, an invertebrate called a tunicate, during an expedition to the Ternate island of Indonesia. Scientists used scanning electron microscope images of the feet, anatomical comparisons, and genetic sequencing to classify the tiny shrimp.

W. de Gier, C.H.J.M. Fransen, “Odontonia plurellicola sp. n. and Odontonia bagginsi sp. n., two new ascidian-associated shrimp from Ternate and Tidore, Indonesia, with a phylogenetic reconstruction of the genus (Crustacea, Decapoda, Palaemonidae),” ZooKeys, doi:10.3897/zookeys.765.25277, 2018.

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