''Dinochelus ausubeli'' is a small deep sea

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

discovered in 2007 in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

during the Census of Marine Life and described in 2010 in the new genus ''Dinochelus''. Its two claws are very different in size, are elongated, and bear many long teeth on the inner surface. It is sometimes dubbed the terrible claw lobster because of its claws.

Description

''Dinochelus ausubeli'' has a

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

length of around , and is in life mostly

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable light scattering by particles, scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale ...

white, with reddish pink colouring near the middle of the carapace, on the tail fan, on the antennae, and on the first pereiopods (including the claws). Its two claws are very different in size.

Distribution and discovery

''Dinochelus ausubeli'' is only known from its type locality, , off the coast of

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

in the Philippines. It was found by

trawling Trawling is an industrial method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch di ...

at a depth of around in 2007, as part of the Census of Marine Life, a major effort to document marine life in the first decade of the 21st century. It was described in 2010 by an international team of scientists.

Taxonomy

The new species was placed in a separate genus, ''Dinochelus'', whose name derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

roots (''dinos''), meaning "terrible" or "fearful", and (''chela''), meaning "

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or Arthro ...

". The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

"ausubeli" honours Jesse H. Ausubel, the sponsor of the Census of Marine Life, "in recognition of his vision and support for marine biodiversity exploration". ''Dinochelus'' belongs to a group of lobsters previously recognised as the separate family, Thaumastochelidae, which also includes the genera '' Thaumastocheles'' and '' Thaumastochelopsis''. These genera all show very long, toothed claws with a bulbous base, with one claw much longer than the other. ''Dinochelus'' has features in common with each of those genera; on the basis of

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The ...

using cytochrome oxidase I, ''Dinochelus'' is thought to be the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to ''Thaumostocheles'' + ''Thaumastochelopsis''. It is distinguished from either genus by the unusual, T-shaped form of the epistome.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18510940, from2=Q1226666 True lobsters Monotypic decapod genera Taxa named by Shane T. Ahyong Crustaceans described in 2010