A "bug" that sat in a university specimen cabinet for over 40 years has finally been recognized for what it really is: not the species everyone assumed, but an entirely new species of deep-sea giant isopod. Paleontology student Benedikt Kästle and Dr. Ingmar Werneburg, curator of the Paleontological Collection at the University of Tübingen in Germany, have formally named it *Bathynomus tuebingoborikensis*. Their study was published in the journal *Scientific Reports*.
The specimen measures 32.2 centimeters (12.7 inches) long. It was acquired in the 1980s by German paleontologist Dolf Seilacher (1925–2014), a winner of the Crafoord Prize, geology's prestigious honor, at a marine research station in Puerto Rico — where a trap set 500 meters deep on the ocean floor had hauled it up. Seilacher brought it back to Tübingen as a teaching specimen, and for decades it sat mislabeled as the known species *Bathynomus giganteus*. Nobody questioned it.
The breakthrough came when Kästle examined the dried specimen with modern imaging technology. After comparing its anatomy with other giant isopods, the team found that its mouth region was structurally distinct — enough to confirm it as a previously undescribed species. In a statement, Kästle said the new species is very closely related to another giant species found off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, and that by size it "falls into the category of 'colossogiants.'"
Giant isopods are among the deep sea's most recognizable oddities: they look like supersized pill bugs (woodlice), inhabit every ocean on Earth, can grow to 50 centimeters and weigh several kilograms, and live as deep as 2,500 meters, scavenging carrion and organic debris. Nearly two dozen species are known, but they look strikingly alike — the Yucatán giant isopod named in 2022, for example, was also first misidentified as *B. giganteus*. That a new species could hide in a specimen drawer for 40 years is hardly surprising.
The new species name, *tuebingoborikensis*, stitches two places together: Tübingen, the university town, and Boríken, the Indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico. The researchers say the description will help scientists understand the evolution of all deep-sea isopods. Deep-sea gigantism itself remains unsolved: why do deep-sea isopods grow to half a meter while their land relatives are a few millimeters? Another study found that deep-sea giants survive years without food thanks to a stomach taking up two-thirds of the body cavity and a gene that slows energy production.
The most delightful part of this story is how it was found: nobody dove, nobody went to sea — a student opened drawers in a collection and pulled out a new species. Natural history museums around the world still hold vast numbers of specimens collected last century that modern technology has never re-examined. As imaging and genetic tools spread, more "new species in the drawer" are likely to keep turning up.