Do Blonds Have More Fun?

Let me feel you: Kiwa hirsuta

According to a story hot off today's AP news wire, an undersea research team descended more than 7,000 feet in seas south of Easter Island last year and discovered a bizarre new type of lobster-like crustacean that not only has hair -- lots of it -- but is platinum blond. The lobster has long claws covered with fur, and is so unusual that the scientists decided it was necessary to create an entirely new taxonomic family to describe it.

However, that fuzzy stuff is not really fur at all. Each of those hairs are a seta, a sort of cross between a feeler and a sensor, and it's a good thing this critter has a lot of them, because the animal is blind (there's not much to see 7,000 feet down).

In fact, the experts tell me that this is not really a lobster. This critter probably evolved from a lobster of some sort, and represents a stage on the way to the development of crabs. There are others like it called "squat lobsters," which were common in the Jurassic, but lost out to crabs because the crabs did better in shallow water. Nowadays there are crabs all over the place, but these half-lobster/half-crab crustaceans are rare and -- like our new friend here -- often survive only in remote, deep areas of the ocean.

According to the AP article, the researchers gave this new crustacean the scientific name of Kiwa hirsuta. The family name, Kiwaida, apparently comes from Kiwa, the goddess of crustaceans in Polynesian mythology.

The Polynesians have a goddess of crustaceans? I was born into the wrong culture. If I don't make it to Christian heaven, surely she'll take me. Now I just need to find her shrine and sacrifice a copy of my book to her. I wonder what she looks like.

UPDATE:

A more detailed article from the BBC points out that the "hair" on the creature's legs might actually be for harboring bacteria that detoxify poisonous minerals around the deep-sea vents where this crustacean lives.

Comments (1)

I'm just disappointed that the press release didn't include the words "tasty" or "sumptuous."