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Neil Cumberlidge of Northern Michigan University, USA (NMU), and Savel R. Daniels of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, are crustacean systematists who have worked together for over 20 years on the diversity and evolution of the Afrotropical freshwater crabs (Africa, Madagascar, Socotra, and the Seychelles). Both researchers have combined their skills in taxonomy and molecular phylogenetics to bring about radical changes in our understanding of the species richness, evolutionary relationships, and classification of the freshwater crab fauna of this region. This work (also co-authored by two former NMU students) describes a new species from Madagascar, revises an important genus, and is one of a series of Afrotropical discoveries (10 new genera and 15 new species) that their collaboration has produced so far. In Madagascar alone, they have described six new genera and eightnew species of freshwater crabs. This is the result of increased exploration of the Madagascar’s ecosystems (mainly by Steve Goodman, Field Museum, Chicago, USA), much improved taxonomy, and increasingly detailed molecular analyses. The team plans to expand their detailed surveys of the many unexplored regions of Africa and its islands, especially Madagascar, using a combination of morphological and molecular tools to analyze their discoveries. There is no doubt that they will describe many more new species of freshwater crabs as their collaborative work progresses over the next few years.
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This page is a summary of: A revision of the Madagascan freshwater crab genus Hydrothelphusa A. Milne-Edwards, 1872 (Brachyura, Deckeniidae, Hydrothelphusinae), with a new species of this genus from northern Madagascar, Crustaceana, August 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15685403-bja10381.
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