Claude together with a Mexico-based Belgian colleague just released a new paper on the deep-water sea cucumbers off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Perhaps we should start counting the number of new species described per nationality of descriptor? Surely, Belgium shall rank with the Big Five;-)

You can read the paper here.

In Belgium, today was the last day before the carnival holidays...Traditionaly school children then go to school in a costume; a witch, a gnome, a princess, etc.

We decided to act normal and went on with our business of digitizing ossicles of aspidochirotid type specimens, but today we put on a slightly more joyful outfit that we received from Aurore, a GTI/ABIC student from Ivory Coast.

Oh yes, the little dance performed is on the occasion of our finding of this 'snow-flake' ossicle in the cloaca of Stichopus japonicus var. typicus.