

New Squat Lobsters with Shivam Tiwari
If you had told university student Shivam Tiwari that he would become one of the foremost systematists of Indian squat lobsters, he would probably have laughed. Shivam began as an ecologist, stressed about his taxonomy exams and definitely more interested in being outdoors than looking at preserved specimens. But one day his PI said something that changed his entire outlook: “if you don’t know what it is, how are you going to conserve it?” Now, as the mining industry becomes more active in the deep sea, Shivam’s work becomes even more important. He explains that the more scientists demonstrate the ocean contains unique and important life, the better they can defend against its exploitation. It’s that sense of urgency, combined with the joy and beauty of working with these animals, that keeps him going. Shivam Tiwari’s paper “A new deep‐sea munidopsid squat lobster of the genus Leiogalathea Baba, 1969 (Decapoda: Anomura) from the southeastern Arabian Sea, India” is in volume 3, article number 6 of Discover Oceans It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44289-026-00117-5 A transcript of this episode can be found here: Shivam Tiwari - Transcript New Species: Leiogalathea samudragiri Episode image credit: Shivam Tiwari Read Shivam’s paper from 2024 on 5 new species of squat lobsters: www.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5501.2.4 Check out Shivam’s personal Instagram: @wild.shivam And his research Instagram account: @aurkitnapadhoge You can also follow him on Twitter: @marine_shivam And on Facebook: Shivam Tiwari A video of squat lobsters swimming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3-9w45prfk Check out the OBIS portal: https://obis.org/ Ocean Census: https://oceancensus.org/ 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













