Giant Crayfish, New species found

Giant Species of New Crayfish

How do we miss things like this? Doesn't it seem a little odd that over a few hundreds of years, none of the thousands of people that have been around this particular region have ever seen one of these animals - or is it just that now someone who knows it is a new (to science) species has found it and brought it to everyone's attention?

Maybe they never found it before because it's a newly created species. Possibly the product of cross-species mating. Can they declare something a new species if only one has been found? Doesn't specify if they found one of these, or a whole community. This could be the oldest species of crayfish, or the newest. How would we ever know? If there has never been evidence of this thing existing until now, couldn't you say that chances are higher it's a new species rather than something that has gone unnoticed all these years?

Yum, lets throw that puppy in a pot and serve him with garlic butter.

Thanks for sharing this info. S&F!

Shouldn't this be in the Cryptozoology forum?

reply to post by goochball


That's sort of along the lines of what I was getting at. Maybe evolution/natural selection/whatever is making sudden bounds. There have been several "new" species discovered in the past few years. Now, a species that is found hidden in an area only accessible by air, hundreds of miles from civilization is easier to understand being "discovered" than one in the neighborhood swimming hole.

I read the article, it HUGE at only 5" long? Umm, I live in Canada and I thought most adult crayfishes were 5" long. This article is misleading. How big are normal crayfish in Tennessee then? like 2"? That's tiny.....

I'm from rural Tennessee and this is not a new species. I remember pulling them out of the water as a kid. A Yahoo commenter said that "any kid who's been in a creek in the last 10 years knows about these (things) and just because some dip$!*+ scientist never saw one, they (the crayfish) didn't officially exist." I agree. If they were overlooking a huge water roach even with reports, how many other things are out there?

Originally posted by loagun
I read the article, it HUGE at only 5" long? Umm, I live in Canada and I thought most adult crayfishes were 5" long. This article is misleading. How big are normal crayfish in Tennessee then? like 2"? That's tiny.....

Yes, most of our crayfish are tiny little things. Don't write them off though, they pinch like the devil when disturbed.

Oh I know. I remember catching the babies when I was little. Even at 1" their pinches would hurt.