Hairy-Chested "Hoff" Crab Lives One Step Between Burning or Freezing

[PatrickJS]

Hairy-Chested "Hoff" Crab Lives One Step Between Burning or Freezing

A species of yeti crab, formerly nicknamed "The Hoff" after television star David Hasslehoff, spends almost its entire life in a cramped existence between extreme cold and heat, farming bacteria on its furry chest for sustenance.

Despite winning so much goodwill with "Adorabilis" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141251-Newly-Described-Octopus-to-be-Named-Opisthoteuthis-Adorabilis-in-Honor-of-its-Cuteness], the scientific community has decided not to name a freshly described species of yeti crab after Baywatch star David Hasslehoff - officially, that is. Until recently it has been nicknamed the "Hoff" crab, largely due to its incredibly furry chest, though today it was given its scientific name: Kiwa Tyleri, after non-Baywatch star and deep-sea biologist Paul Tyler.

The crab formerly known as Hoff spends its life in an extremely precarious situation. The crustacean lives near vents at the bottom of the Southern Ocean, where super-heated water, filled with trace minerals and metals, flows up from below in perpetual geysers. The liquid that flows out of these vents is hot - up to 700F, some scientists believe. Step too close, and you quickly becomes an over-cooked crab cake.

Should the furry critter step just a little too far from the vent, however, they quickly freeze to death in the inhospitable Antarctic water.

More from the Escapist on biology. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/biology?from_search=1]

To make matters worse for the Hoff, these vents are crowded - hundreds of crabs gather around, clinging to the rock and each other with specially evolved claws (see the gallery below to get an idea of how crowded this can get).

[gallery=4345]

Like so many of evolution's oddities, the question to ask isn't why would a creature live here, but can it - since where life can survive, it usually will. These crabs don't just survive, though. It is hard to imagine how Kiwa Tyleri's ancestors came to live in places like this, but it is clear that their descendants have adapted to thrive. The super-heated, nutrient-rich water that is blasted from the vents these crabs call home is perfect food for certain types of bacteria, which these yeti crabs farm on their afore-mentioned sexy hairy chests and scrape off for nutrition.

Male crabs, larger than the females, can never leave the vent at which they are born. Females, however, are a little bit tougher and can make the journey when necessary, to find a new vent at which to lay eggs.

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

Source: National Geographic [http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2013/11-crab/]

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[fluxy100]

How'd they get there in the first place? Wouldn't their ancestor have needed the ability to survive the cold to get there? What kinda shit luck would've made that ability get bred out over time?

 

[PatrickJS]

How'd they get there in the first place? Wouldn't their ancestor have needed the ability to survive the cold to get there? What kinda shit luck would've made that ability get bred out over time?

It's hard to say. I didn't want to mention it in the article because so much of it is pretty much unknown, but a few theories that came up:

1 - The crab ancestors were hardier. The female crabs of this species can survive in the cold between vents when they want to lay eggs elsewhere - maybe the ancestors could last even longer in the cold, or maybe their ancestors just incrementally moved into colder and colder water, looking for more vents to colonize.
2 - Accidental proliferation - a female, egg-carrying crab gets dropped near a vent by a wayward ocean current. Since she is already a yeti crab or something like it, harvesting bacteria is pretty much what they're good at, so she and her kids have an ok time. This kind of thing happens quite regularly - driftwood with rats on it floats onto an otherwise rat-free island and boom, rat-city; the jet stream takes a tree seedling from Asia to North America where it takes root and thrives.

As for the second point... just not needing it any more, I would guess. It may seem crazy to lose that ability but if they thrive where they are, any extra baggage - like an ability to survive a place which, while right next door, they never REALLY need to go to - would get bred out if they've been living there long enough. Evolution doesn't have a lot of room for "just in case."

 

[Recusant]

How'd they get there in the first place? Wouldn't their ancestor have needed the ability to survive the cold to get there? What kinda shit luck would've made that ability get bred out over time?

It's hard to say. I didn't want to mention it in the article because so much of it is pretty much unknown, but a few theories that came up:

1 - The crab ancestors were hardier. The female crabs of this species can survive in the cold between vents when they want to lay eggs elsewhere - maybe the ancestors could last even longer in the cold, or maybe their ancestors just incrementally moved into colder and colder water, looking for more vents to colonize.
2 - Accidental proliferation - a female, egg-carrying crab gets dropped near a vent by a wayward ocean current. Since she is already a yeti crab or something like it, harvesting bacteria is pretty much what they're good at, so she and her kids have an ok time. This kind of thing happens quite regularly - driftwood with rats on it floats onto an otherwise rat-free island and boom, rat-city; the jet stream takes a tree seedling from Asia to North America where it takes root and thrives.

Would that account for the width of their range? You didn't specify how wide that is, and I don't have a vent map of the Antarctic ocean floor. But if it were the latter case, you'd only have populations as far as the male crabs could travel (unless you've got enough genetic variance in a single clutch of eggs to avoid inbreeding, or gravid females travel together).

 

[PatrickJS]

Would that account for the width of their range? You didn't specify how wide that is, and I don't have a vent map of the Antarctic ocean floor. But if it were the latter case, you'd only have populations as far as the male crabs could travel (unless you've got enough genetic variance in a single clutch of eggs to avoid inbreeding, or gravid females travel together).

I'm not sure how wide their range is. Lots of species have gone through bottleneck moments in their history, where the population dwindles to a point where inbreeding can't be helped - some survive, some don't. Really, it just makes the first theory I mentioned all the more likely - crabs migrating further and further south, seeking out more vents, seems like it has so much less luck involved.

Then again, it only needs to happen once.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Hey, Antarctica! Don't hassle the Hoff Kiwa Tyleri.

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

...has this been scientifically proven?

 

[PatrickJS]

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

...has this been scientifically proven?

He grows penicillin, actually, which he donates to hospitals in developing countries. Sadly, this was incompatible with the bacteria farming.

 

[Shinkicker444]

Two things, those crabs looks seriously creepy piled up like that and I wonder if they taste any good (I'm think no, and possibly toxic).

 

[Dalek Caan]

It should have no regrets, like me!

Seriously thought that thing is weird looking, it looks like it's gone off and now hair is growing on it.

 

[J Tyran]

Would that account for the width of their range? You didn't specify how wide that is, and I don't have a vent map of the Antarctic ocean floor. But if it were the latter case, you'd only have populations as far as the male crabs could travel (unless you've got enough genetic variance in a single clutch of eggs to avoid inbreeding, or gravid females travel together).

Undersea vents or "black smokers" are not stable though, they move across the globe as the crust moves over the hot spots in the mantle. There could have been a time within the evolutionary cycle of the crab when they where much closer together, or two zones came together closely enough for the crabs to move over before moving apart again.

Then you have things like under water disturbances, landslides, currents and things like that could move crabs or even just eggs a huge distance (wrecked ships have been found 100s of KM from where they sank in especially powerful undersea currents to give a demonstration of how far things can get moved).

 

[PatrickJS]

Undersea vents or "black smokers" are not stable though, they move across the globe as the crust moves over the hot spots in the mantle.

Very cool.

 

[soren7550]

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

Add this to the Escapist Quote Hall of Fame.

 

[RaikuFA]

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

Only Wendy's burgers. After hes been drinking.

 

[PatrickJS]

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

Add this to the Escapist Quote Hall of Fame.

If I can put a sentence like that into an article just once a year, I'd be happy.

 

[Seraj33]

Ugh, Fahrenheit... the only unit for temperature that is absolutely useless.

 

[Denamic]

David Hasslehoff does not farm bacteria in his chest hair.

[citation needed]

Some creatures baffle me. Sure, gradually adapting to a new environment, that I can understand. But what kind of moronic lifeform sees a vent hot enough to cook it alive and thinks "I'm gonna live in that." You'd think the death would keep creatures away, but no, they kept dying from the heat until they accidentally stopped dying. Nature, what do?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Well Hasslehoff is naturally friends to all sea creatures.