Friday, August 18, 2006

New species found on ebay

Okay, not a new ant species, but still crazy: According to New Scientist, a new species of sea urchin -- Coelopleurus exquisitus -- was recently described after London's Natural History Museim scientist Simon Coppard was repeatedly asked to identify specimens purchased on ebay. He and a colleague -- Heinke Schultze -- discovered it was unknown to science and published their description in Zootaxa. According to BoingBoing there is even a specimen up for auction on ebay right now, although it says it says it is Coelopleurus interruptus. It is very pretty. I wonder what the state of ant taxonomy would be like if ants were sold on ebay.

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