A couple of years ago, marine biologists bought some giant “seabugs” from fishers in Vietnam. The creatures had been pulled from the mud at the bottom of the South China Sea. They were up to a foot long, weighed a couple of pounds, and had armor plating. The creature had never been cataloged before—it was a new species. Its face resembled the mask of Darth Vader, so the scientists named the seabug after him.
Sometimes we consider a species rare because it truly is, whether because it’s endangered or simply because it naturally has sparse populations. But other times, a species may only appear rare because it lives in such remote locations that people haven’t managed to find it very often. That seems to be the case with the world’s largest amphipod, Alicella gigantea. Amphipods include more than 10,700 shrimp-like crustaceans found throughout the sea and other aquatic environments.
