BONUS: The Dancing Arm-Gardens of the Costa Rica Cold Seeps

For my recent Thanksgiving Day post, I blogged about the awesome Andrew Thurber, marine ecologist who identified a second species of yeti crab.



This just in! Thurber (with William J. Jones and Kareen Schnabel) put out a research article for PLoS ONE last week, "Dancing for Food in the Deep Sea: Bacterial Farming by a New Species of Yeti Crab", that both describes how the new species grows its own food on its claws by dancing (not making this up!!) and announces its name: kiwa puravida

WELCOME, KIWA PURAVIDA!



Ed Yong, in his article for Nature, "Yeti crab grows its own food", quotes Thurber regarding the discovery:

“It was a big surprise,” he says. “There’s a tonne of them, they’re not small, and they’re six hours off a major port in Costa Rica.”

Read Yong's article for more quotes - Great stuff!

Here are a few snippets:

"Those of us who work in the deep sea expect to discover a strange new species every time we dive."

"Thurber thinks that K. puravida waves its claws to actively farm its bacterial gardens" ... "This 'dance' is extraordinary and comical."

Yong also shares these FANTASTIC videos for Discover Magazine: "Yeti crab farms bacteria on its arms" -