A new species? Or just a river crab with street smarts.
Nice twist!
Potamon fluviatile, an unassuming freshwater crab, has shown superior staying power, thriving in the canals built by the Etruscans nearly 3,000 years ago...
The ancient ruins of Trajan’s Forum in the heart of the Eternal City have provided the ideal habitat for the crustacean, which is much larger than its counterparts in lakes and rivers...
While in nature the crab grows to a length of five centimetres (two inches), it is more robust in the ruins, growing to more than eight centimetres. “Once we found a moult (shed exoskeleton) measuring 12 centimetres!”