Freshwater shrimps are difficult to study. They’re nocturnal, they live in leaf litter, and yet they are involved in both commercial fishing and the pet trade, making research on their diversity critical. Dr. Prakash Sanjeevi and Maclean Santos have a new strategy for adapting to these challenges: harnessing the power of community. Through educational videos, social media, workshops, and more they provide training to already-interested hobbyists, who in turn help them find rare specimens for papers like this one, in which they redescribe a species that hadn’t been seen in Indian waters for 72 years.

“I truly feel that it is not the talent which survives the long term in this research game, It is more of the hard work and it is more about how much you like the species because if you love a species, you will work really hard for the species” says Maclean. Listen in as we discuss the fascinating morphology, biology, and joy provided by these freshwater shrimps.

Maclean Santos and Prakash Sanjeevi’s paper “Rediscovery of the genus Atyopsis Chace, 1983 (Decapoda: Atyidae) in mainland India following a 72-year gap” is in volume 5722 of Zootaxa.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5722.4.7

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Maclean Santos and Prakash Sanjeevi - Transcript

Episode image credit: Maclean Santos

Read their recent paper describing a new species from the same region: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5194.3.5

Follow Maclean and Prakash on Instagram:

Prakash: @sanjeeviprakash

Maclean: @homeaquat

More pictures and information on GBIF: https://www.gbif.org/species/7839136

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod