A group of researchers discovered the first species of hairy, white “Yeti crab” in hydro-thermal vents below the surface of East Scotia Ridge, Antarctica, and they revealed its existence in a paper this week. The creature has been named Kiwa tyleri after a British deep-sea biologist Paul Tyler.
Researchers photographed the creature in 2010 using a remotely operated submersible vehicle (ROV), but since then, they used computed tomography (CT) scanning and genetic sequencing to find out more about the crab. Researchers described what they found in the journal PLOS ONE Wednesday.
There are three known Yeti crabs, including Kiwa tyleri, but this is the first to be discovered in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica’s coast, NBC News reports. It lives in large communities of great density–approximately 700 crabs per meter–in hot vents on the ocean floor.
Lead author, Sven Thatje, said that “Crabs and lobsters are very rare in Antarctic/Southern Ocean waters because of the unusually low seawater temperatures.” Thatje added that they “knew immediately that we’d found something tremendously novel and unique in hydrothermal vent research.”
So why do the crabs live in such tiny spaces? The answer is simple. The water beyond their packed communities is frigid. Water temperatures fluctuate between 30 and 33 degrees Fahrenheit on the Southern Ocean floor.
Though the waters are extremely cold, some crabs still leave their cozy home. Female crabs leave the vents to brood their eggs since they would not survive in the vents. However, they usually die because they are not strong enough to make it back on their own.
The crabs are pretty small. Some are only an inch in size, while others measure nearly half a foot.
The hair on its back gives them the ability to farm their own food, according to Slash Gear. The farm (or hair) grows bacteria for the crab to feed on. This trait, along with their pigment-less, white color, was developed in order to adapt to their unique environment.
The crab also has hair on its chest or underside. Because other Yeti crabs do not have this characteristic, scientists nicknamed it “Hoff crab” after the one of the most hairy-chested actors from the 1980s, David Hasselhoff.
