Hairy crab found, according to reports in BBC News, and news@nature and ScienceNOW 8 March 2006.
A crab that looks like a “cross between a gorilla and a lobster” has been found living near a hydrothermal vent at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 1,500km (900miles) south of Easter Island. The white crab is 15cm long (6 inches) and has pincers covered with a dense coat of hair-like strands.
Scientists are unsure about the function of the hairs. The crab has no eyes so the hairs may help it sense the environment, but they may also enable a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. Scientists studying the crab found many filamentous bacteria living on the hairy pincers and suggest the crab feeds on bacteria. Other scientists suggest the bacteria may detoxify poisonous minerals that come out of the vents.
The crab has been named Kiwa hirsute and is so different from other crabs it has been put into a new taxonomic (classification) family of crustaceans.
Editorial Comment: Here we see another example of bacteria living in peace with other living things and probably contributing to their well-being by providing nutrients and maintaining the right chemical environment. Even though we do not live in such an extreme environment, we do carry a multitude of bacteria that help maintain the right chemical environment on our body surface and in the lining of some body cavities. Bacteria are part of God’s good creation, but like many other living things can produce a bad effect when they get into the wrong places or have suffered harmful mutations.
The fact that this eyeless crab lives so differently from other crabs, provides no evidence for evolution, but is good evidence that crabs, including the ones which have lost eyes, have reproduced their own kinds, as Genesis states.
Evidence News 12th April 2006
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