On December 15th, I mentioned the exciting news from Jon Copley of the discovery of potentially new species of Yeti Crab. The Guardian has a photo gallery of the some of the creatures from the Dragon Vent including the new Yeti Crab. Below is the video that ends with some great footage of both the Scaly -Foot Snail and the Yeti Crab.

The post Another New Yeti Crab! Pt II 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.