A four-leaf clover represents just one kind of rareness. One might find a 4-leaf clover just about anywhere. Four-leaf clovers are not just restricted to Ireland. Four-leaf clovers are rare because at any given locality they occur in very minuscule numbers.

The idea of whether rareness imparts values has tormented philosophers, including Nietzsche. “Whatever can be common always has little value. In the end it must be as it is and always has been: great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare.” But of course, Nietzsche does not define rare. What does “all that is rare for the rare even mean?” Freakin’ Nietzsche.

We all feel we know what rare means. But contrast the case of four-leaf clovers with platinum. Platinum is special for me. For my 10th wedding anniversary, I had a custom wedding ring made of platinum for my wife. This platinum band was to replace one from our youth when I had more limited income and could afford a metal less “precious” and less “rare.” Yet, platinum represents another kind rarity, occurring in great abundance but only at a few locations. Locally abundant but geographically restricted.

In a classic 1981 paper, Dr. Deborah Rabinowitz, a professor at the University of Michigan, laid out the seven forms of rarity. What makes something rare depends on three characteristics; geographic range, habitat specificity, and local population size. First, is a species found globally or only at a single location? Two, is species seen at any given site in low numbers? Third, is the species only found in a specific type of habitat?

As Rabinowitz notes in elegant writing., “If each of these attributes is dichotomized, a 2 x 2 x 2 or eight-celled block emerges. Although creating the hazard of false reification – that is, converting an idea into an object – such a simple scheme can aid in focusing our thoughts, and this is my intention. The patina – a gloss or incrustation conferred by age – of monolithic rarity may have hindered our understanding of an exceedingly heterogeneous assemblage of organisms. Since the products of rarity are diverse, the causes of rarity and the genetic and population consequences of rarity are undoubtedly equally multiple.”

But obviously, 2x2x2 does not equal 7. One state is lost, a species found everywhere, in high numbers, and several different kinds of habitats. This species isn’t rare at all! You can think of the seven forms of rarity as three singe type cases (geographically limited/small numbers/habitat specialist), the three double type cases (geographically limited and small numbers/geographically limited and habitat specialist/small numbers and habitat specialist), and the last triple case (geographically limited and small numbers and habitat specialist).

The most uncommon form of rarity is a species found all over but in limited numbers at a single location. One such species is the exceptionally beautiful deep-sea snail Oocorys sulcata found in the eastern and western corridors fo the Atlantic and reaching will into the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. Oocorys sulcata also show incredible depth tolerance found all the way from the shelf at 150 meters down to the deepest abyss over 5000 meters. Yet, despite this fantastic distribution, it is rarely found. A famous sampling effort off of New England did not capture a single individual in 41 samples. Another 24 samples later as part of later effort only yielded a single specimen. Indeed, based on some very rough calculations, you would probably only find about 15 every square kilometer or roughly 45 Manhattan city blocks.

Hydrothermal vents possess mollusks that are both unique and fascinating. A snail first described in 2003, the unusual snail Chrysomallon squamiferum, maybe the most exciting find thus far at a hydrothermal vent. I admit my bias here, as most of my interest lies with studying deep-sea snails. Nonetheless, the discovery of “gold-footed” snails a the Kairei vent field in the Indian Ocean is fascinating.

At this point, I should state that the foot of the snail is mineralized with pyrite and greigite. Many of you might note the misnomer here, as pyrite is only ‘Fool’s Gold,’ but in deciding on a temporary ordinary name Fool’s Gold-Footed Snail seemed a bit lengthy. I hope all will forgive the intentional misnomer for the sake of creative writing. Although other names due include the big-hearted iron snail (it also possesses an abnormally large heart for its size). And of course the scaly foot snail. So maybe the big-hearted, iron gold, scaly foot snail.

The scales, or sclerites, that cover the entire length of the snail’s foot can be up to 8mm long. The presence of mineralized scales is remarkable in itself, but the existence of iron sulfide as skeletal material is unknown from any other animal. The purity of sulfides, among other lines of evidence, suggest that the building of the scales is controlled by the gastropod itself. The sclerites are thought to have evolved recently and homologous to the operculum. It is believed they may serve as a defense against cone shells also occurring at the vent.

Chrysomallon squamiferum is rare, not only for the oddity of its features amongst the animal kingdom but because the snail is known from only three hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean. While abundant at any of these vents it is geographically restricted, like platinum. The scaly foot is actually a “double rare” case both geographically restricted and a habitat specialist. Given this potential habitat of only a few square meters, some of which endangered by deep mining interests, led a new paper by Dr. Sigwart and colleagues establishing Chrysomallon squamiferum as endangered on the IUCN RedList. This listing places the big-hearted, iron gold, scaly foot snail with 25 species all either bony fish, cartilaginous fish, or cephalopods all assessed to be either endangered or critically endangered.

Helen Macdonald writes in H is for Hawk “The rarer they get, the fewer meanings animals can have. Eventually rarity is all they are made of. The condor is an icon of extinction. There’s little else to it now but being the last of its kind. And in this lies the diminution of the world. How can you love something, how can you fight to protect it, if all it means is loss?”

I am hoping for future where Chrysomallon squamiferum I remember this elegant mollusk for the rarity of beauty, adaptation, and morphological marvel not the rarity of its existence.

Sigwart, J. D., Chen, C., Thomas, E. A., Allcock, A. L., Böhm, M., & Seddon, M. (2019). Red Listing can protect deep-sea biodiversity. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1.

Rex, M.A., Stuart, C.T., Etter, R.J., & McClain, C.R. (2010). Biogeography of the deep-sea gastropod Oocorys sulcata Fischer 1884. Journal of Conchology, 40, 287.

Rabinowitz, Deborah. (1986). Seven forms of rarity and their frequency in the flora of the British Isles. Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity 

Rabinowitz, Deborah. (1981) Seven forms of rarity. Biological Aspects of Rare Plant Conservation

The post The Beauty of Rarity first appeared on Deep Sea News.

User u/Karzdan posted the above image** of Nereis sandersi  to the Reddit forum. The polychaete worm is known from hydrothermal vents and described relatively recently by Blake in 1985.   Interestingly, N. sandersi is eyeless.

Furthermore, the presence of sunken depressions in places where eyes usually occur in N. sandersi is unique for the genus. The occurrence of such depressions is reminiscent of blind cave-dwelling vertebrates which have only vestigial, non-functional eye rudiments remaining from ancestral progenitors which had sight. The very large peristomial ring and enormous palps would appear to be appropriate sensory replacements for a sightless animal in the deep sea. -Blake (1985)

And so begins the Photoshops

**note I am trying to track down the original photographer of the image to credit them here. UPDATE: credit goes to Nicolas Gayet from Paulo Bonifacio lab.

The post Photoshop Battles with this Image of a Hydrothermal Vent Polychaete Worm first appeared on Deep Sea News.

If you’re still skeptical about barnacles, you must be a robot. C’mon, look at that thing! If ninjas lived in the deep sea, they would use these barnacles as their weapon. Case in point:

Barnacles live at hydrothermal vents all over the world, sometimes packed as densely as 1500 individuals per square meter. Currently, there are 13 described barnacles species across 4 taxonomic families. But morphology isn’t great at distinguishing species, so in recent years researchers have needed to rely on DNA sequences to untangle the relationships between deep-sea barnacle species.

In honor or Darwin’s birthday today (collectively known as #DarwinDay), the most appropriate marine biology homage is story about the evolution of deep-sea barnacles. Herrera et al. (2015) have a recent, really fantastic paper, in Molecular Ecology, where they used fancy genomics tools to ask:

• Do vent barnacles have a single evolutionary origin (e.g. did they all evolve from a common ancestor)?
• When and where did vent barnacles first evolve?
• Historically, how did vent barnacles spread (radiate) across the deep-sea?

Herrera et al. collected 94 barnacle specimens from 18 hydrothermal vents worldwide (it’s really hard to do deep-sea biology, so this is actually LOT of barnacles painstakingly collected with robotic claws). Next, they sequenced three genes from each individual (the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene, the nuclear 28S rRNA gene, and the nuclear Histone H3 gene), and additionally got crazy amounts of whole-genome data from each barnacle using a technique called Restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq).

<cue elevator music and montage of genomic data analysis, where a hacker-looking scientist sits in a dark room, furiously typing code and downing shots of espresso. Finally he/she builds evolutionary trees, glorious trees.>

The results of this study showed that, contrary to prior hypotheses, barnacles have colonized deep-sea hydrothermal vents at least twice in the course of their evolutionary history. This can be seen by the two distinct clades (red and yellow) recovered in Herrera et al.’s phylogenetic Tree O’Barnacles:

The largest group of vent barnacles (Clade A, the red clade above) seems to have originated in the Western Pacific Ocean and then moved east, colonizing “the Eastern Pacific, the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean during the late Miocene to early Pliocene” (Herrera et al. 2015, using ancestral state reconstruction to analyze phylogenetic patterns). Once barnacles had adopted the hydrothermal vent lifestyle, it looks like they moved east. Based on molecular clock estimates using DNA sequences, the timing of their dispersal is concordant with geologic events such as the opening of the Drake Passage (41 million years ago).

Barnacle DNA also indicates that hydrothermal vent species arose fairly recently (well, in geologic time), emerging after a deep-sea mass extinction event during the Cretaceous– Paleogene period boundary. That boundary–65 million years ago–should be familiar. Deep-sea barnacles started their ascension as the dinosaurs were on their last breath.

We’ve only just begun dipping our toes into the world of deep-sea genomics. Given the time-machine-like powers of DNA sequences, and the fact that hydrothermal vents are essentially “islands” in the deep sea (thus giving us the perfect system to test some big evolutionary theories), the next few years should produce some really exciting deep-sea discoveries. Forget hoverboards: if Darwin came Back to the Future I’m sure he’d much rather have genomics.

Reference:

Herrera S, Watanabe H, Shank TM (2015) Evolutionary and biogeographical patterns of barnacles from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Molecular Ecology, 24:673-689.

The post Deep-Sea Barnacle Genomics. Because, #DarwinDay first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Today is a very exciting day. Indeed, today is one of the best days ever! The next step in my evil science plans for total world domination to unlocking science achievement level 10 is now complete. Thanks to Chris Mah (@echinoblog), one of the world’s leading experts on starfish, there is now a species named after me. I may die but my species, Paulasterias mcclaini, will live on forever. BWAHAHAHAHAAHA.

Why would Dr. Mah name the coolest species of starfish ever after me? Well I’ve agreed to not let out details about his secret superhero identity in the arrangement. Kidding. Along with David Clague, I invited Chris to join us an expedition in 2009 to visit the Northeast Pacific of Washington and Oregon aboard the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s Western Flyer.

I don’t jest when I say this coolest species of starfish ever. Others may raise an eyebrow to such a statement but there are many reasons.

1. The species is named after me.

2. The species is named after me.

3. Paulasterias mcclaini along with Paulasterias tyleri are part of a brand new family of starfish, Paulasteriidae, the first new family erected in this group of starfish, Forcipulatacea, since the 1800’s. See the evolutionary tree below.  You can see these two new species are quite unique genetically from others in the group.

4. The other species and family is named after deep-sea biologist Paul Tyler. Paul’s contributions to deep-sea science are wide spread, novel, and significant. Paul, along with John Gage, literally wrote the book on deep-sea biology. I studied and reread the book many times over years. It has served as inspiration to me and countless others. I also have another important connection with Paul. Years ago my first submersible dive was with him in Harbor Branch’s Sealink. Needless to say I’m in fantastic company.

5. Despite echinoderms being a major player in most of the deep sea, no members of been collected as primary members of hydrothermal vent settings. P. mcclaini and P. tyleri are the found either near vents or in proximity.

6. Number 6…well it’s six armed. Five-arm starfish need to learn how to represent.

7. P. mcclaini don’t give a damn. It’s found on rock, mud, pillow lava, vent chimney fragments, and even hydrothermally altered clays interspersed with bacterial mats.

8. P. mcclaini don’t like the heat. It’s not found actually on vents where it’s hot and toxic. This starfish doesn’t need that kind of subprime real estate.

9. Especially on the larger specimens this bad boy starfish has thick, fleshy skin. Indeed, the body is covered by a layer of fleshy, spongy tissue that obscures the plates comprising the body. I realize this sounded cooler before I wrote it down.

10. Better yet, this starfish is armored and ready for battle. Spinelets cover the entire body.

11. Finally, P. mcclaini might be set on total global domination. Chris Mah sates, “A six-rayed pink species with inflated arms has been observed by the Okeanos Explorer on two ROV imaging expeditions, in the North Atlantic (August 2013) and in the Gulf of Mexico (April 2014). This species is possibly identified as Ampheraster alaminos; however, it shows superficially similar body colour and shape to P. mcclaini gen. et sp. nov. “

Mah, C., Linse, K., Copley, J., Marsh, L., Rogers, A., Clague, D. and Foltz, D. (2015), Description of a new family, new genus, and two new species of deep-sea Forcipulatacea (Asteroidea), including the first known sea star from hydrothermal vent habitats. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 174: 93–113. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12229

The post These are a few of my favorite species: Paulasterias mcclaini “McClain’s 6-armed fleshy star” first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Further out from the venting fluid is the ‘B’ group, a mixture of medium size males and females. This coed party can be in the 100’s per meter squared. The majority of the females here possess ripe ovaries suggesting they are receptive to the sexual inquiries of the males. Further out again from the venting fluids is an additional coed party, ‘C’ group, and despite only being attended by the smallest of females and males densities reaches over 4,000 per meter squared. This area smells a lot like stale beer and hormones, is illuminated by glow sticks, and all overlaid with rhythmic pounding of the latest pop hit club remix. There ain’t party like a C group party because a C group party never stops.

At the very periphery, far from the venting fluids and at the coldest temperatures, is a transition zone. Here, juveniles are in search of the venting fluids to sustain their harry bacteria. In addition, brooding females find refuge here for their young from the environmental extremes of the vent and potential damage from lusty crabs crawling all over each other.

In the video above an ‘A’ Group (00:41–01:05) A ‘B’ Group (left) adjacent to an ‘A’ group (right) at the “Black & White” chimney (00:41–01:05).

In short, males are driven by sex and food as you might expect from a crab with luxuriant chest ‘hair’. The females add the additional priority of actually carrying and caring about the young.

Marsh, L., Copley, J., Tyler, P., & Thatje, S. (2015). In hot and cold water: differential life-history traits are key to success in contrasting thermal deep-sea environments Journal of Animal Ecology DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12337

The post For Hoff Yeti Crabs Food, Sex, and Birth Determine Living Space At Vents   first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of nautical lore —

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my office door.

“ ’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “asking again about ocean lore —

Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was the gray Oregon December;

And in the distance I could hear the waves crash upon the shore.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow

From my textbooks cease of sorrow — mistake of science for ocean lore—

Of the unreal and radiant mermaiden whom I really thought a bore —

Nameless here for evermore.

As the soothing and uncertain rumbling of each aqua curtain

Thrilled me — as each tidal wave washed ashore;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

“There are amazing creatures in the waves beyond the shore —

Ones that far outshine the whisperings of ocean lore; —

They exist and nothing more.”

Presently my thrills grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

I thought of the creatures which science has explored;

But the fact is the public’s asking, and marine science is ever tasking,

To know what creatures there lay upon the ocean floor,

That are far more fascinating than legend — than ocean lore; ——

The ones that science ought to explore.

Deep into that darkness peering, I thought of creatures then appearing,

In my head as thoughts of animals like none seen before;

The nudibranchs, echinoderms, cetaceans, each its own unique creation

Each one more fascinating than the one before.

This I pondered, as my imagination scanned the ocean floor —

Over undersea vents and near the shore.

First, Orcinus orca, the bringer of death, a beautiful fury with predator’s breath.

Whose artful visage many species do abhor

He spends his lifetime bound to kin, a social life that rivals men;

Who has his own dialect and vocabulary store —

A scourge to prey within the sea and upon the shore —

May he click and squeal forevermore.

In my mind’s eye I flung the shutter, when, within my thoughts did sputter,

Vampiroteuthis infernalis, the vampire squid with his black chromatophores;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, on the end of each pulsing limb, a glowing aqua photophore—

Lit up like a lighthouse hailing ships to safer shores —

He drifted into the abyssal darkness, vanishing forevermore.

Then traveling ever deeper, my feeble eyesight growing weaker,

A hydrothermal vent teeming with extremophiles upon the ocean floor,

Tubeworms, shellfish, bivalves, octopi, thrive in smoking hydrogen sulfide

Braving temperatures as hot as Celsius 464 —

Each animal more unique than the last, as if pulled from fiction’s store

Like no creatures seen above the ocean shore.

Much I marveled at this place as I ascended,

Arose swiftly from the ocean’s core;

As I left the zone that few human beings

Are very often blessed with seeing; I traveled from the ocean’s floor—

I thought of creatures bold and brighter, nearer to the ocean shore,

And dwelt in darkness nevermore.

Rising up to bluer waters, gave my imagination fodder

To seek out creatures who seemed nearer to imagination’s door

The blue dragon nudibranch, Glaucus atlanticus, surely from Poseidon’s corp,

Whose iridescent blue wings fluttered as the ocean waves rolled back and fore

A reminder that each marine invertebrate is more beautiful than the one before

Left me in awe forevermore.

Marveling at the ocean’s creatures, seeking out more faunal features,

I thought of the humble rockfish, who some might think to be a bore

Ambling through the waves unworried, ever calm and rarely hurried

A life which patience doth implore, he lives two centuries or more —

Oft ‘till the dirges of his tasty flesh make fisheries his burden bore

Long live the rockfish, nevermore.

But the sea’s treasures still piling, I found myself then smiling,

Thinking of the creatures creeping on the ocean floor;

Like the sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia helianthoides,

A beauty lethal, with 24 arms flush as the petals of a rosy fleur —

It feeds on countless prey within the rocky intertidal shore

A predator other invertebrates do oft deplore.

And where at once the tide grew stiller, I did then sight that knightly killer

The mighty shark which modern evolution did ignore.

Lithely swims with tail curled, with razor teeth flashing, whorled

Alas, the shark does claim no more the fiercest throne the ocean o’er

As the finning trade then sought him to gore

Swam the shark most proudly, nevermore.

Peering towards the vast horizon, two blue forms my eyes did spy on,

Swimming on like two Leviathons, those giants that I do adore,

The blue whale (B.musculus) and whale shark (Rhincodon typus)

Although the largest fish, and the whale, ne’er a larger creature did come before;

They feast on but the tiniest creatures that the ocean bore;

Merely these and nothing more.

Back ashore the tide was turning, and as I watched with youthful yearning

As the blue waves kept gliding, turning, and seafoam crept across the shore

Weary then my eyes did flutter, and I closed the textbook cover,

My mind reeling with creatures found in the sea and on the shore.

Each drop of saltwater a world alone to be explored.

The world which forms the ocean’s core.

How curious, thought I, then wondering, that one would spend time pondering

Imaginary creatures when there are already so many within the ocean’s store

Creatures wrought as if from fiction, but well within science’s diction.

Far more fabulous than fantasy could have ever bore;

To study them myself I swore, like many marine scientists before.

Long live our oceans, evermore.

The post An Oceanic Ode first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Perhaps it is easier to think deep-sea mining is something that will happen in the future.  Surely the cost and logistics of mining the ocean floor kilometers deep far outweigh the profit.  Think again.  Let this post be your wake up call.  Nautilus, that company that is going to delicately mine hydrothermal vents, is one step closer to have a bright new shiny 310 ton toy to pillage the deep.

From Dredging Today (yes that actually exists)…

Subsea vehicle designer and manufacturer SMD were awarded the contract to build the world’s first deep sea mining tools for Nautilus Minerals in 2007. The contract included three subsea mining machines with the associated control and launch and recovery systems.

Tuesday, 2nd July, saw the first major milestone in the production of the mining vehicles with the arrival of the chassis of the Bulk Cutter (BC) at SMD’s main production facility in Wallsend. The chassis, which was fabricated by Davy Markham in Sheffield, was delivered complete with double ended drive tracks which were manufactured by Caterpillar in Italy. The Bulk Cutter is the heaviest of the three vehicles, weighing 310 Tonnes when fully assembled; the chassis weighs 70 Tonnes.

Nautilus intends to use the vehicles at its first project, known as Solwara 1, off the coast of Papua New Guinea in approximately 1600m of water.

After another vehicle (the auxiliary cutter) plows a flat path over that pesky not flat seafloor, the Bulk Cutter, the power house, begins the excavation. It has a large excavating that drum that is driven by one megawatt of cutting power.  Keep in mind that’s enough power to light 600 homes.

The post Deep-Sea Mining: This Shit Just Got Real first appeared on Deep Sea News.

From Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute…In the ocean, there are places where it looks like it is snowing. These magical places are near undersea volcanic activity. The snow particles are clumps of bacteria that use chemicals to make food. Chemicals they use include hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic to virtually all other life. Most other ecosystems on earth depend on organisms that require sunlight to create food. Vents release hot water, minerals, and chemicals from beneath hardened lava. The fluid is almost 30 degrees F warmer than the surrounding water. The bacteria live beneath the seafloor and are also released from the vent. These tiny one-celled microbes provide food for many animals. A thick mat of white bacteria builds up; little worms and crustaceans feed on it. Nearby, “black smoker” vents may form when vents spew minerals in water up to 750 degrees F. In time, an amazingly robust community with thousands of animals flourishes here. This video was recorded 480 km (300 miles) west of the Oregon coast at 1,516 m (4,974 ft) depth with remotely operated vehicle Doc Ricketts.

The post TGIF: Marine Snow first appeared on Deep Sea News.

You heard here first people, another new species of Yeti crab may be out there!  Jon Copley just sent this message along.

Well hey, a couple of weeks ago we found yet more yeti crabs out here at vents on the SW Indian Ridge, different in morphology to the Costa Rican seep and southern Pacific vent species (incidentally, K. hirsuta was described from the Pacific, rather than the Indian Ocean).

For a few first-glimpse photos, check out www.thesearethevoyages.net/jc67/diary.html.

These boys don’t dance though, unlike the “puravida”s (which does sound a bit like a Ricky Martin song).

As a disclaimer these have not been officially or scientifically described as a new species but rather preliminary evidence indicates the potential for a new species.

Also at this same vent field, the Dragon Vent field, the group found scaly-foot snails in the hottest habitat around the black smokers.

UPDATE: Word from Jon Copley on the potential new Kiwa species is “while their carapace suture patterns etc fit the description of the family and genus, they don’t have elongated, hirsute chelae [shaggy hair] – instead they have rows of dense bristles on their ventral carapace, a bit like a carpet sweeper”

The post Another New Yeti Crab!!?? first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Back in 2005, three researchers described and named a very unusual crab from a hydrothermal vent in the Indian Ocean (paper here).  The scientists christened this crustacean Kiwa hirsuta from the name of the goddess of shellfish in Polynesian mythology and the Latin hirsutus meaning hairy. The later specifically referring some very hairy claws indeed.

Thus a legend was born, taming the media like no other. I’ll say it again. Everybody loves a fuzzy crab. I will note at the time, the Census of Marine Life did an excellent job with a public relations blitzkrieg and we all benefited from it.

In 2008 a team published that the dense hair like structures on the claws, legs, and stomach of the crab were covered with clusters of filamentous bacteria, making the crab appear extraordinarily ‘hairy’. More importantly those bacteria were determined to have key enzymes that allowed for chemosynthesis, i.e. the potential for carbon fixation and cycling of reduced and oxidized sulfur. But the purpose of Kiwa hirsuta housing bacterial groves on its exoskeleton was unclear.

Later that year, that hairy crab became the Yeti Crab and also became our number 12 best deep-sea species. And as Jarrett notes “I mean, how could you know love crabs from the Kiwa genus? They have fuzzy arms! And are adorable! People immediately began paying tribute with plush toys of all manner and even decorative food arrangements.”

Then in 2011 came a second species of Yeti Crab and the internet went buzz with a new dance sensation.  Thurber et al. in PLoS One describe a new Kiwa a Costa Rican hydrothermal vent. The new species is christened Kiwa puravida, a conjunction of the Spanish words “pura” and “vida” meaning pure life, a common saying within Costa Rica.  But the truly interesting finding is, as Ed Yong describes, “The bristles that cover the crab’s claws and body are coated in gardens of symbiotic bacteria, which derive energy from the inorganic gases of the seeps. The crab eats the bacteria, using comb-like mouthparts to harvest them from its bristles …Thurber thinks that K. puravida waves its claws to actively farm its bacterial gardens: movements stir up the water around the bacteria, ensuring that fresh supplies of oxygen and sulphide wash over them and helping them to grow. “This ‘dance’ is extraordinary and comical,” says Van Dover. “We’ve never seen this strategy before.”” Also see this write up at Thoughtomics.

And with that a new dance craze and internet meme began. Below is a roundup of videos (courtesy of Dr. Zen).  Feel like something is missing?  Well here are instructions to create your own. I will also note there is very disgraceful lack of hip-hop themed videos.

The post Yeti Crab Roundup first appeared on Deep Sea News.