Where's Waldo? Scientists Discover New Species Off California Coast

Where's Waldo? Apparently he's off of the coast of California. Scientists have recently discovered a rather unusual new species of clam in the ocean waters and have dubbed the creature Waldo arthuri.

Scientists have actually been aware of the existence of this clam since 1989. That's when a researcher discovered specimens off of the coast of California. At the same time, though, another scientist uncovered a similar clam while trawling for invertebrates off of Vancouver Island. When the two met at a scientific conference, they realized that they had found the same exact species at the same time--but over 1,000 miles apart.

The new claim is almost alien-like with its thin, translucent shell and long willowy tentacles. Those aren't the only unusual features that the animal possessed, though. While alive, these creatures show some unusual behaviors.

"We were looking closely at sea urchins and noticed something crawling on the fine spines covering the urchin body," said Diarmaid O Foighil from the University of Michigan in a news release. "We were amazed to see that there were minute clams crawling all over the sea urchin."

While it was first found in 1989, though, it took several more years before they could thoroughly study and describe the creature. In fact, it took over two decades to understand and formally describe it.

"We never anticipated this would be such a long project," said Paul Valentich-Stock from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, in a news release. "But every time we started in one direction we hit a wall and needed to begin again."

In the end, the researchers amplified the DNA of the new species and compared it to other, similar species. They found that Waldo was very distinct genetically. Yet there was another surprise in store for the scientists.

"We were surprised to find that its closest relative was from the South Atlantic Ocean off Argentina," said Valentich-Scott in a news release. "This is a very peculiar animal, they only seem to live on the spines of one type of sea urchin in a commensal relationship. We found it ironic that the new species was in the genus Waldo and just couldn't help but ask, 'Where's Waldo?'"

The findings are published in the journal ZooKeys.