WEBVTT - From the Vault: Crabs Eat Everything Around Me, Part 2 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:08.039 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.559 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're out 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.600 for Thanksgiving break this week, but we've got some episodes 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.320 for you from the vault. This one is called Crabs 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:20.080 Eat Everything Around Me Part two. It originally published November. 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:28.120 Let's dig in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:37.960 production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.120 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and my 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.520 name is Joe McCormick, and we're back with Part two 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.400 of the Feast of Crabs. If you haven't heard part one, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:48.520 you should probably go back and listen to that one first. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.880 But I'm ready to jump right in. Yeah, we're gonna 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:57.240 We're gonna continue with our exploration of various uh accounts 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.920 of crabs eating curious things, eating things in curious ways, 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.880 and so forth. This is kind of our they kind 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.080 of tradition during the holidays towards the end of the 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.840 year to dive into a crab related topic and see 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.679 what it has for us. Now, we haven't talked a 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:19.000 lot about mythology and folklore in in our crab journey 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.120 thus far, and you know, part of it is. When 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.840 you look around, crabs often don't have central roles in 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.600 um in myth cycles. I mean there I think there's 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.120 some exceptions to the rule, but a lot of times 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.160 it's stuff like, uh, like Hercules is fighting the hydra 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.360 and then a crab shows up and tries to to 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:41.960 to nip at his heels and he dispatches it and 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:43.920 goes back to fighting the hydra. That sort of thing. 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.160 Oh yeah, that sounds it was. So that's the crab cancer, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.000 right that became the constellation name from, or that has 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:52.320 the same name as the constellation. I mean, he still 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.680 gets a constellation out of the whole affair. But it's 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.600 you know, it's it's it can feel little bit disappointing 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:02.040 if you're really into crab uh anatomy and into crab 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.840 monster movies, UM, it can be a little a little 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:06.920 bit of a letdown, Like, come on, you can't Hercules 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:08.840 have more of a battle. Can't he just battle the crab? 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.000 That sounds fun to me? Oh wait, I just had 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:14.440 to look this up because I wasn't sure if I 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.560 was remembering it right. But yeah, he he gets the 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:22.520 constellation basically because Hara hates Heracles and the crab like 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.120 bites him on the foot, and then Heracles kills the 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.640 crab and Hera's like, well, good job biting him on 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.000 the foot. I'll put you in the sky forever. The 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.799 Greek gods. Well, I do have a fun one that 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.960 I found though, that I want to share with everybody. 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.000 This one I discovered in the book Japanese Mythology A 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.960 to Z by Jeremy Roberts. I looked around to try 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.480 and find some of the places as well and didn't offhand. Um, 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:50.560 I'm sure it can be found other places, but this 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:52.520 is the only place I was able to find find it. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.040 I'm going to retell it for you here, but I'll 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.840 stress that Jeremy roberts telling of it is is going 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.600 to be more dramatic than mine, So definitely go to 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.040 that source if you want to see it for yourself. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.680 So that's how it goes down. A young girl, uh 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.520 buys a crab from a fisherman in order to save 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.840 the crabs of life. She's doing, you know, the basic 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:14.480 thing that a lot of little kids will do, where 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.160 they suddenly, you know, they'll feel sorry for a captive 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.760 animal or a food animal, and they want to to 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.400 save it, and so that's what this girl does. She 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:27.520 buys the crab, lets it go. Meanwhile, her father is 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.680 in a similar scenario. He's trying to save a frog 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.800 from a snake. I'm not sure why, but he's trying 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.880 to do this. He's like, no, snake, you do not 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.080 get to eat this frog. I'm not gonna let you 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.440 do it, and the snake finally is like, okay, look, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.720 I'll spare the frog's life, but you have to let 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:50.400 me marry your daughter, and dad agrees. So we don't 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.680 know anything about this frog. It's not special, like it 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.560 wasn't his brother who got turned into a frog or something. 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.120 There has to be more to this story. Um know, 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.000 I've been reading a lot about various yokai recently, and 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.440 you know, with with those Chinese ghost stories, there's often 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.960 some hidden meaning. You know, maybe it comes down to 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.720 a turn of phrase, you know, something that's not going 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.040 to be obvious in a pure English translation, or it's 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.120 something metaphorical, etcetera. So I don't know exactly what is 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.159 going on here, but I think it can't just be 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.560 the fact that Dad just loves frogs and loves frogs 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.560 more than he loves his daughter. Um, but at any rate, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.200 this is the scenario we find ourselves in. Okay, So 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.440 what happens? Well that night the snake arrives, but arrives 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.080 in human form and tries to claim his bride. And 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.839 so Dad at this point has not even warned his 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.960 daughter about what he agreed to. Uh. So he's he's 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.040 able to buy a little time. He's like, look, look, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.600 just come back in a few days, and the snake agrees. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.480 So Dad has a little opportunity here to talk with 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.440 his daughter. He tells her what has happened, and she 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.840 is rightfully horrified. She hides away in her room in 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.680 she praised to the gods for delivery from this uh, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.480 this snaky fate, and the gods do not answer her 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.760 prayers because they're too busy putting crabs in the sky. Perhaps, yeah, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.160 it doesn't see that the gods are are listening to her. 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.400 And meanwhile, you know the the The two days pass 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.080 and here comes the snake again. Only this time the 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:25.280 snake has come in its serpentine form. It's an animal form. 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.359 It enters her room, and just when it seems that 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.640 she is completely abandoned to this fate, a thousand crabs 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.760 burst through the door and consume the snake, just you know, 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:41.600 completely deflesh it a thousand crabs. And so I guess 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:43.920 the idea is like this is that that she spared 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.040 the crab earlier and so she had she had a 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:48.880 friend in the crabs, And or you could also look 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.960 at it like the gods did actually reward her. They 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.800 were listening, and they allowed all these crab saviors to 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.680 come and yeah and yeah, save her from this snake 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.440 and she marries this warm of crabs. I don't know, maybe, 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.599 but but I love this because it's also like, oh man, 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.440 this is something you could have, like a swarm of 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:11.240 crabs tearing tearing an enemy apart like that should be 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.080 in a film somewhere somehow, this whole thing could be 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:19.160 adapted into some sort of like a weird horror tale. Yeah, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.280 crabs are not usually the hero of a story. Yeah, 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.560 this this is maybe the only one I've really been 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.359 able to find so far. But hey, if you know 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.440 some good crab hero stories out there, right in because 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:33.480 we love to hear from you, because yeah, generally it 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.400 seems like crabs are going to be a minor character. 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.840 Uh you know, let's think of Disney's a Little Mermaid, right, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.719 the crab is just there to be a friend to 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.920 arial the Mermaid. Uh. I guess maybe he comes through 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.599 a time or two. But he's he's not the focus, 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.320 he's not the he's not the big central hero. But 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.600 you know, I think it's a kind of mechanically intuitive 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.920 pairing to have snakes and crabs together in a tale 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.200 like this. Yeah, it does seem like it's some thing 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.599 that storytellers around the world have come back to a 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:08.000 few times. Um. For instance, there's this crab snake duology 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:12.240 in the Aesop fable The Snake and the Crab. Also, 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.760 speaking of Disney movies, it factors into Disney's The Sword 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.520 in the Stone, which is a King Arthur movie that 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.160 I imagine a number of you have seen and they're 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.320 familiar with. It's an otherwise in my opinion, it's it's 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.240 kind of a boring film. It doesn't have a lot 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:32.440 going on, except it has this fabulous wizard battle between 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.880 Merlin and this this evil witch who I think was 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.520 created for the Like. It's not Morgana or anything, it's 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.080 just it's just this witch that he battles Mab. I 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:46.000 think her name is Mimm Mim. Yeah, I think you 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.240 think you're right. So anyway, it's a battle between between 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.200 two magic users and the whole the rules of the 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.400 battle are that they have to fight each other. Uh, 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.400 No one can turn invisible. You can only transform into 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.040 real world animals, not into of fantasy animals. And we're 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.880 going to see who who winds up on top. So 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.200 it's a fabulous sequence where they jump in and out 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.080 of various animal forms and there and you know, generally 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.240 trying to counter each other. And in this it actually 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.600 reminds me a lot of of of another of a 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:20.480 Japanese story about foxes that are engaging in a similar competition, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.120 magical foxes who are transforming themselves into different forms, and 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.920 like one transforms into this and the other transforms into 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.720 something to sort of uh counter that, and it just 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.520 keeps going. And in this case, one of them transforms 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.600 into a snake and the other transforms into a crab 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.760 in order to of course clip that snake in half 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.320 if it can. Yeah, this comes back to that mechanically 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.360 intuitive pairing I was talking about, where I think people 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.959 just have a natural tendency that goes like this. So 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.839 first step, you see a thing that is longer than 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.960 it is wide, and then the second step you automatically 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.640 think about cutting or snipping a cross wise. So snakes 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.920 are naturally long and crabs have by logical scissors on 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:05.840 their legs. Yes, um, I also yeah, them is great 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.160 in this. But also I have to say that Merlin 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.880 has a wonderful animated mustache as long as we're we're 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.600 focusing on November mustaches here, and it makes sense right 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:16.840 because we think of the like the mouth parts of 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.920 a crab, it's easy to to imply some sort of 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.280 a mustache going on there as well. Oh yeah, it 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.959 fits right in there. Now I want to say something 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.280 else here. I thought that this is worth noting about 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.400 the crab, the crab form, and about how the crab 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.400 is just ultimately this winning design. In fact, it's such 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.640 a winning design that, according to a two thousand twenty 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.400 one Harvard University study, the crab like body plan evolved 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.880 at least five times independently in both true crabs and 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:50.000 false crabs. So that's at least five cases of carconization. Uh. 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.360 This is a term that was coined by evolutionary biologist l. A. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.080 Bora Dale in nineteen sixteen. And on top of this, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.720 the Harvard study points out that the crab body has 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.480 been lost at least seven times, so this would be 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:09.040 a process that they referred to as d carcinization. So, um, 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.400 I love this idea. I mean this kind of falls 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.440 into I think a popular meme about everything becoming crabs, 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.960 about how, given enough time, the crab form will be 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.680 the form of everything because it just works so exceedingly well. Now, 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.440 I do enjoy that meme. I guess technically, if we 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.679 want to be pedantic, it's about certain types of arthropods, 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.959 Like you've already got certain a certain body plan to 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.360 start with, and if you're starting there, things that are like, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:36.880 you know, lobster ish or something in one way or 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.880 another often are shaped by their environment to become more 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.160 crab like. But yeah, yeah, thumbs up to the meme. 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.160 So the first crab I thought we might talk about 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.160 here today, uh, sometimes referred to as the Yeti crab 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.080 or the hoff crab, it's its actual name is is 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.360 perhaps a better suited for this interesting creature. Now there 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.240 are a few different varieties, uh, but the one of 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.800 the first that was really discovered that really set the 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.680 trend is Kiwa Hersuta. Kiwa is the name of the 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.640 Maori sea god and then Hersuita is Latin for Harry. 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.120 So Kiwa Hersuta was discovered by a team from the 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.160 Monterey Bay Aquarium in two thousand six along the Pacific 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.800 Antarctic Ridge south of Easter Island. And it is a 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:26.240 is a wonderful looking creatures. This pale, hairy looking crab, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.040 kind of elongated looking. I would say it looks a 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.520 little bit like, you know, some sort of a lobster perhaps, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:36.000 but it has no eyes and it lives on hydrothermal vents. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.719 So this discovery gave us not only a new species, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.640 but a new genus, that Kiwa genus. And there are 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.600 other Ciwa crabs that have popped up, including Kiwa ty 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.040 Larry found off the Southern found in the Southern Ocean 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.480 off of Antarctica. And this species is probably my favorite, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.480 as in my opinion, it's a little more cute looking, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.640 it's less elongated, and it's more it's more plump. It 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.080 looked um, I don't know, it just looks like like 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.640 like it it it belongs in a cartoon, you know, yes, 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.160 And it's a great example of the kinds of things 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.520 we were just talking about, with these sort of converging 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.400 forms of different types of of marine arthropods. Because technically 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.640 the Kywa genus are not true crabs. I think they 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.200 are a type of lobster or lobster related organism. But 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.960 there it's they're super cool. I mean, they're also focusing 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.080 just on tylery. Here it has a tiny habitat, a 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.480 mere thermal envelope of a few square meters deep along 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.880 the East Scotia Ridge. Um it's here that they live 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.559 by these black smokers. These are vents, These a chimney 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.840 like vents that spew dark water that reaches temperatures of 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:50.720 roughly seven degrees farenheight or three degrees celsius. They live 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.640 in heaps here, sometimes like six thousand crabs per square meter, 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.760 and they're cramped in here because outside of this narrow 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.360 proximity to the black smokers, the ocean is extremely cold. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.839 Uh so they're they're this fascinating example of extremophile life 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.640 suspended between boiling eruptions and chilling darkness. Like this is 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.320 the niche that they've carved out for themselves. It's also 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.080 interesting to imagine how they would spread between one vent 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.680 to another. You know that you almost have to imagine 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.840 their lifestyle is like a uh, you know, living on 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:30.360 these tiny islands in a way. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.600 they're so they're on these little little islands and uh 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.040 and they're they're jocking position here. So you tend to 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.800 find like the older, bigger crabs are are are towards 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.160 the center, towards the heat, and the adolescents are having 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:46.520 to to scramble for position on the outside. Meanwhile, the 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.120 hot sulfur rich zone is is likely too much for 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.640 their eggs, so the females seem to have to crawl 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.960 off into the colder, darker waters to brood and they 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.320 likely die there. They likely just don't have the energy. 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.120 They spend all their energy going out to do that 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.319 and they can't make it back. But the females. Then 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.520 this releases a vast quantity of larvae into the water column, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.760 and some of these end up finding distant vents, others 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.600 returning to their own vent um. So you have this 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.400 is how we end up with with with with the 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:23.760 larvae from from a particular hydrothermal vent location potentially ending 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.840 up at other vents. Yeah, like a lot of organisms 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.560 in the ocean. They've got this sort of broadcasting method 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.360 of reproduction that allows allows uh the organisms to spread 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.200 in their in their larval forms. Yeah, I was reading 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.840 a great article about this in on the BBC website 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.400 by Jonathan Amos wrote about them in two thousand and 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:44.880 eighteen and points out the first of all, the last 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.000 common ancestor of all these various Yeti crabs probably live 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.800 thirty to forty million years ago in the eastern Pacific. 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.200 And so what we have here are these different far 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:58.080 flung ancestors due to the successful colonization of hydrothermal vents 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.920 by dispersed larvae UM and so the other. Then the 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.120 crazy thing about all this too is once they have 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.800 found a place to thrive, that doesn't mean that this 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.640 is a forever home UM. In Amos's words, these various 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.320 events quote switch on and off through time. So event 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.000 that has this thriving population of of of Vietti crabs 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.440 around it may just suddenly turn off and then everything 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.600 around it just dies in the cold um. And then 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.280 it may turn back on later uh, and then it's 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.520 a place that the larvae can can can can arrive 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.800 at and life can sort of begin again until such 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.960 time as it just turns off. Returning to the island analogy, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.040 you have to imagine like a small island that has 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.120 a thriving ecosystem on it, and then suddenly it just 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.880 gets like a dome clamped over it that turns it 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.720 into a sub zero freezer. And then at some point 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.520 maybe the dome is suddenly lifted and it's exposed to 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.920 the sun again. Yeah, yeah, and so this is why 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.960 any given species of yetti crab has to ultimately maintain 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.120 multiple footholds at different events to survive. But it also 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.920 drives home the delicate how just how delicate these event 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.560 environments are, because um, if human activity wipes out, you know, potentially, 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.400 just like it seems like just one or two of 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.640 these vent habitats, they could potentially limit a given species 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:22.040 holdings to an unsustainable level. Um. I don't know that 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.840 researchers have really worked out. I mean we we I 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.160 don't think we know enough about like you know, all 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.080 the different places that they live. But yeah, it's it. 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.640 Basically the idea is we we we don't know just 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.360 how delicate the situation is if they're depending on vents 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:38.960 that may again turn off and back on again at 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.280 any given moment. They have to have a foothold in 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.240 a certain number, and if you start digging into that 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.240 number through deep sea mining or some other human venture, 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.320 then yeah, you potentially put them in in an unsustainable place. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.720 Won't someone think of the dear crustaceans. I mean, they 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.200 are so cute. I mean it is uh probably easier 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.840 than than with a lot of arthropods in the ocean 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.040 to generate sympathy for them because they look kind of like, yeah, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:09.040 these pale, fuzzy ticks. Uh, that doesn't really folks sympathy, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.159 does it. But they yeah, they're they're like plump and 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.720 cute and I don't know, they're good well, also, Tylery, 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.880 especially if you look at a picture of them from 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.520 a from above, it also kind of looked with the 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.399 pale colorization, it looks like a human skull from above, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.199 like there's a human skull with skull cover colored legs 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.720 and claws coming out of it, which again doesn't sound 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.840 very cute, I guess, but um, but but it makes 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.240 it makes it a very interesting creature to look at. Now, 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.840 I should again stressed that we have different varieties, and 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.880 they have some different um different features. For instance, tay 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.440 leery have special spikes for scaling up those chimneys of 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.119 the black smokers. Meanwhile, there's a species found near Costa 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.479 Rica which is Kiwa pura vita, which doesn't have claws 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.520 at all. Um, So you have they have different varieties, 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:58.679 but what they seem to all have in common is 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.000 their namesake, hey, which isn't here at all, but set 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.680 which they used to collect bacteria growing around the hydrothermal 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.040 vents and also to grow it within these what if 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.359 it's sometimes referred to as gardens on their bodies, and 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.800 then they use their delicate mouthparts to scoop up and 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.240 consume the bacteria. So they are you know, they're they're 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.080 walking around growing their own food, collecting their own food, 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:24.639 and then growing it on their own bodies. It's pretty great. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:33.640 Thank well. This actually connects directly to a couple more 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.560 examples I wanted to talk about. So the first one 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.280 is connected by the idea of these deep sea dwelling 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:45.080 UH crustaceans that can be found around hydrothermal vents. So 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.000 I came across another report of interesting crab feeding behavior. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.040 This this was from a short twenty six article and 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.000 New Scientists by Sam Wong, and the subject of this, uh, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.440 this right up was video footage that had been captured 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.720 by a robotic deep submersible that was based off of 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.520 the Schmidt Ocean Institute's ship, the foul Core, and it 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.800 had been exploring life around deep hydrothermal vents in the 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.760 Pacific at a depth of thirty meters so way way down. 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.480 This was in the Marianna region. Well, well, I have 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:19.480 to slow down there. That it was called the foul Core. 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.280 So it was named for the wish dragon in the 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.240 Never Enning Story. I don't know, what's awesome? So well, yeah, 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.639 I don't know this foul Core in the Never Earning 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.960 Story named after something else? Or is that original to 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.639 the book? I don't know offhand, So I cannot answer 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.359 your question. But that is its name, all right? Or 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.440 are you gonna apply to set sail on the foul Core? Now? No, 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.640 probably not, but I but I applaud the naming. Uh 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.119 either way? Well, so, anyway, the submersible based off of 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:52.879 this ship was um capturing footage of crabs that were 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:57.080 that were around these hydrothermal hotspots, and this particular species 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.720 was known as austin O Graya william See. Apparently not 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.560 a whole lot is known about them, but they inhabit 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.879 these hotspots, and like many other deep sea creatures, they 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.239 tend to be pale and lacking eyes and so as 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.280 to the diet of these crabs, they have been observed 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:21.240 eating some regular things like snails and algae, but they 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.719 have also been observed engaging in brutal cannibalism. You can 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.480 find some video footage of this. Uh. It's it's of 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.439 a particularly frenzied quality. It's just sort of like a 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.040 big murder puddle of pale crabs ripping legs and claws 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.520 off and and running away with them. Uh and and 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.879 and of course, in addition to eating other things in 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.480 their environment, but on this expedition, footage was captured of 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.080 these crabs doing something a little gentler. They were appearing 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.880 to groom one another, eating bacteria off of the shells 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.840 of con specifics. So, for example, you can see one 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.520 crab going up to an the crabs leg and just 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.320 sort of picking at it, just picking it, not pulling 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.080 the leg off and running away with it, as they 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.399 might be wont to do in another situation, but just 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.440 sort of like grazing along the outside of the leg, 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.760 getting some of this, uh, this bacterial matting off of 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:20.439 the surface of the of the exoskeleton. And this is 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.840 really interesting behavior. It makes me wonder, like, what does 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.840 this indicate about the the nature of the crab. Is 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.000 it possible this could have some kind of social role 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:35.000 within crab society, like the social grooming behaviors of primates. 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.000 I mean, on one hand, that seems kind of unlikely 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.400 because these are you know, these are crabs. They're not 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.600 they're not social mammals, um, you know. So it could 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.160 just be that bacteria is delicious and here's some right 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.960 now on on my on this neighbor's leg. But I 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.080 guess we don't know that this kind of thing. I'd 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.480 be interested to see more research about, like could there 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.000 be a role for some type of social grooming within 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.520 these within the deep see Arthur pod communities. Interesting interesting 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.399 Now I have in the background here, Joe, I had 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.200 to do some quick research, and first of all, I 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.560 can confirm that the RV Falcore is in fact named 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:16.280 after the wish dragon in the Never Ending Story. Um 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.720 it was. It was originally called the c Falc, but 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.960 then it was retro fitted um later um and I 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.359