New Species of Yeti Crab Discovered Near Hydrothermal Vents in Antarctica

Researchers have finally described the first species of Yeti Crab from hydrothermal vent systems from the East Scotia Ridge in the Southern Ocean. The findings reveal a bit more about these strange species.

The species, called Kiwa Tyleri, belongs to an enigmatic group of squat lobsters, known as Kiwaidae. These animals thrive in the hot waters surrounding the geothermally heated hydrothermal vents. The crabs are the dominant species at these sites and occur in extremely high densities. In fact, it's not uncommon to find more than 700 of them per square meter.

This Yeti Crab is famed for it is body, which is densely covered by bristles, known as setae. It's also covered by bacteria, which helps give the crab a fur-like appearance. This appearance allows the crab to harvest the dense bacterial mats, which overgrow surfaces of vent chimneys, on which it depends on for food from the chemosynthetic bacteria.

"The Antarctic Yeti Crab is trapped in its warm-water hydrothermal vent site by the cold polar waters of the surrounding deep-sea," Sven Thatje, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The species has adapted to this very limited sized habitat-of a few cubique meters in volume-by living in highly packed densities and by relying on bacteria they grow on their fur-like setae for nutrition."

The findings reveal a bit more about these deep-sea animals. More specifically, they show how these crabs can manage to survive within this warm water oasis in a desert of cold water.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.

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