This is the story of the green-eyed hermit crab, and it's coat of many creatures. Most hermit crabs live in shells not of their own making, taking the cast-offs of clams, shellfish and the like. But this newfound species of hermit found off the west coast of South Africa takes a different path: It lives within a colony of living, anemone-like animals. (Anemones are ornate polyps with tentacles used to catch and feed on small fish and the like.)
The new species was discovered during a survey of life on the seafloor during a research cruise in 2013, but was only fully described in a study published recently in the journalZooKeys. The most striking feature of the crab, dubbed Paragiopagurus atkinsonae, is its green eyes. Why does it have green eyes? Nobody knows. -read more and see video
No comments:
Post a Comment