"I grabbed a male and looked at the reproductive structure and when I saw this really unique shape I said, ‘Where did you find this? This is not supposed to be here.’"
-- Carlos Santamaria
USF Sarasota-Manatee assistant biology professor Carlos Santamaria is grateful for once that his students didn’t follow directions.
As a result, they found a previously undiscovered species of isopods in Sarasota Bay’s mangroves, a discovery that came after his students second-guessed him on where to collect the specimens,.
Instead of searching piers and rocky areas as instructed, they explored mangroves and returned with a species not known to occur on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Read more at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.