A new record of Ocypode italica (Brachyura: Ocypodidae) from the Pliocene of Tuscany (Central Italy)

Well-preserved fossils of benthic marine invertebrates, including decapod crustaceans, are often found in the Pliocene sediments that constitute the substratum of the hills of Tuscany. Year after year, new or “exotic” taxa are found and documented, mostly thanks to isolated finds. In systematic paleontology, the ideal condition for instituting a new species is by working on many specimens: in this way, a newly instituted taxon may be described on the basis of the holotype and other specimens that would depict its intraspecific variability. That said, given the fragmentary nature of the fossil record, this happens rarely, and several extinct species are instituted and described based on very few specimens. It is the case for the ghost crab Ocypode italica Garassino et al., 2010 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Ocypodidae), which was known so far by the holotype and one paratype. Recently, thanks to the cooperation between some citizen scientists and academically educated paleontologists, a well-preserved new specimen of O. italica was collected from the same upper Pliocene deposits of Tuscany (central Italy) from which the type specimens originate. Our new find represents the third known specimen of this extinct species, and as such, it allows to better characterize the anatomy of the carapace, chelipeds and walking legs of this rarely occurring ghost crab. In the present work we report on this new find and briefly discuss its palaeontological significance