Yeti Crab

Discovery of the “Yeti Crab”

An international team of scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of blind deep-sea crab whose legs are covered with long, pale yellow hairs. This crab was first observed in March 2005.

Because of its hairy legs, this animal was nicknamed the “Yeti crab,” after the fabled Yeti, the abominable snowman of the Himalayas.

This drawing shows the Yeti crab that was collected by scientists on the Pacific-Antarctic ridge. The drawing was created by scientific illustrator Karen Jacobson.

The primary goal of this expedition was to learn how bottom-dwelling animals from one deep-sea hydrothermal vent are able to colonize other hydrothermal vents hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Sciencist noticed an unusually large (15-cm-long) crab with hairy arms lurking on the seafloor.

Most of the crabs were living at depths of about 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) on recent lava flows and areas where warm water was seeping out of the sea floor. According MBARI biologist Joe Jones, “Many of the crabs were hiding underneath or behind rocks—all we could see were the tips of their arms sticking out.”