For more than 180 years, the origin of Cerataspis monstrosa - monster larva - has been a mystery as deep as the ocean waters it comes from.
Researchers have been trying track down the larva that has shown up in the guts of other fish over time but found no adult counterpart. Until now.
George Washington University Biology Professor Keith Crandall cracked the code to the elusive crustacean's DNA this summer. It turns out this monster larva and the deep-water aristeid shrimp known as Plesiopenaeus armatus are one and the same: larvae and adult forms of the same species.