How a Sydney scientist became enamoured with the ‘Ferraris of the crustacean world’ – and discovered a new shrimp species

The chimera mantis shrimp (Incertasquilla chimera) discovered by the Australian museum’s Prof Shane Ahyong. Photograph: Rémi Chauvin/The Guardian

When Prof Shane Ahyong was seven, his mum came home with a bag of prawns from the fish shop – but one of those things was not like the others.

“It just looked different,” said Ahyong.