WEBVTT - Crabs Eat Everything Around Me, Part 2 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.240 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.640 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Joe McCormick. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.520 And we're back with part two of the Feast of Crabs. 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:23.520 If you haven't heard part one, you should probably go 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.280 back and listen to that one first. But I'm ready 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.280 to jump right in. Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna continue 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:34.720 with our exploration of various uh accounts of crabs eating 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.680 curious things, eating things in curious ways, and so forth. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.280 This is kind of our big kome of tradition during 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.480 the holidays towards the end of the year to dive 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.800 into a crab related topic and see what it has 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.680 for us. Now, we haven't talked a lot about mythology 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.680 and folklore in in our crab journey thus far. And 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.240 you know, part of it is when you look around, 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:05.120 crabs often don't have central roles in um in myth cycles. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.160 I mean there, I think there's some exceptions to the rule, 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.080 but a lot of times it's stuff like like Hercules 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.360 is fighting the hydra and then a crab shows up 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.360 and tries to to to nip at his heels and 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.600 he dispatches it and goes back to fighting the hydra 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.880 that sort of thing. Oh yeah, that sounds it was. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.320 So that's the crab cancer, right that we can the 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.080 constellation name from, or that has the same name as 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.840 the constellation. I mean, he still gets a constellation out 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.560 of the whole affair. But it's you know, it's it's 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.160 it can feel a little bit disappointing if you're really 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.399 into crab anatomy and into crab monster movies. Um, it 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.039 can be a little a little bit of a letdown, like, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.080 come on, you can't Hercules have more of a battle. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.280 Can't he just battle the crab? That sounds fun to me. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.200 Oh wait, I just had to look this up because 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.120 I wasn't sure if I was remembering it right. But yeah, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.880 he he gets the constellation basically because Hara hates Heracles 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.520 and the crab like bites him on the foot, and 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.000 then Heracles kills the crab, and Hera is like, well, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.960 good job biting him on the foot. I'll put you 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:12.400 in the sky forever. The Greek gods. Well, I do 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:13.959 have a fun one that I found though, that I 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.840 want to share with everybody. This one I discovered in 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.079 the book Japanese Mythology A to Z by Jeremy Roberts. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:21.960 I looked around to try and find in some other 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.320 places as well and didn't off hand. Um, I'm sure 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.200 it can be found other places, but this is the 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.240 only place I was able to find find it. I'm 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.880 going to retell it for you here, but I'll stress 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.400 that Jeremy roberts telling of it is is going to 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.120 be more dramatic than mine, So definitely go to that 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.040 source if you want to see it for yourself. So 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.079 that is how it goes down. A young girl, uh 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.919 buys a crab from a fisherman in order to save 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.440 the crabs life. She's doing you know, that basic thing 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.359 that a lot of little kids will do, where they suddenly, 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.040 you know, they'll feel sorry for a captive animal or 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.000 a food animal and they want to to save it. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.639 And so that's what this girl does. She buys the crab, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:05.160 lets it go. Meanwhile, her father is in a similar scenario. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.839 He's trying to save a frog from a snake. I'm 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.919 not sure why, but he's trying to do this. He's like, no, snake, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:13.840 you do not get to eat this frog. I'm not 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.840 gonna let you do it, and the snake finally is like, okay, look, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.120 I'll spare the frog's life, but you have to let 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.600 me marry your daughter, and Dad agrees. So we we 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.960 don't know anything about this frog. It's not special, like 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.400 it wasn't his brother who got turned into a frog 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.120 or something. There has to be more to this story. Um. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.880 You know, I've been reading a lot about various yokai recently, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.600 and you know, with with those Chinese ghost stories, there's 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.280 often some hidden meaning. You know, maybe it comes down 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.040 to a turn of phrase, you know, something that's not 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.280 going to be obvious in a pure English translation, or 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.320 it's something metaphorical, etcetera. So I don't know exactly what 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.360 is going on here, but I think it can't just 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.480 be the fact that Dad just loves frogs and loves 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.480 frogs more than he loves his daughter. Um. But at 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.880 any rate, this is the scenario we find ourselves in. Okay, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.280 So what happens? Well, that night, the snake arrives, but 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:15.080 arrives in human form and tries to claim his bride. 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.080 And so Dad at this point has not even warned 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.160 his daughter about what he agreed to. Uh, so he's 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.480 he's able to buy a little time. He's like, look, look, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.000 just come back in a few days, and the snake agrees. 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:30.920 So Dad has a little opportunity here to talk with 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:32.839 his daughter. He tells her what has happened, and she 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.359 is rightfully horrified. She hides away in her room and 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.080 she prays to the gods for delivery from this, uh, 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.880 this snaky fate, and the gods do not answer her 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:48.120 prayers because they're too busy putting crabs in the sky. Perhaps, yeah, 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.560 it doesn't say that the gods are are listening to her. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.799 And meanwhile, you know the the the two days pass 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.479 and here comes the snake again, only this time the 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.520 snake has come in its serpentine for warm. It's an 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.240 animal form. It enters her room, and just when it 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.800 seems that she is completely abandoned to this fate, a 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.640 thousand crabs burst through the door and consume the snake, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:17.120 just you know, completely deflesh it. A thousand crabs. And 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.440 so I guess the idea is like this is that 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.760 that she spared the crab earlier, and so she had 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:24.800 she had a friend in the crabs, And or you 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.640 could also look at it like the gods did actually 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.120 reward her. They were listening and they allowed all these 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.320 crab saviors to come and yeah and yeah, save her 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.200 from this snake and she marries the swarm of crabs. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.719 I don't know, maybe, but but I love this because 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.000 it's also like, oh man, this is something you could have, 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.440 like a swarm of crabs tearing tearing an enemy apart 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.599 like that that should be in a film somewhere somehow, 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.240 this whole thing could be adapted into some sort of 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:57.120 like a weird horror tale. Yeah, crabs are not usually 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.720 the hero of a story. M Yeah, this this is 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:02.599 maybe the only one I've really been able to find 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.599 so far. But hey, if you know some good crab 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.359 hero stories out there, right in, because we'd love to 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.559 hear from you, because yeah, generally it seems like crabs 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.960 are going to be a minor character. Uh. You know, 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.640 let's think of Disney's a Little Mermaid, right. The crab 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:20.000 is just there to be a friend to arial the Mermaid. Uh. 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.599 I guess maybe he comes through a time or two, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.160 but he's he's not the focus. He's not the he's 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.320 not the big central hero. But you know, I think 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.760 it's a kind of mechanically intuitive pairing to have snakes 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.760 and crabs together in a tale like this. Yeah, it 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.480 does seem like it's something that storytellers around the world 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.200 have come back to a few times. Um For instance, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.479 there's this crab snake duology in the Aesop fable The 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.919 Snake and the Crab. Also, speaking of Disney movies, it 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.520 factors into Disney's The Sword in the Stone, which is 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.760 a King Arthur movie that I imagine a number of 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.520 you have seen and they're familiar with. It's an otherwise, 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.880 in my opinion, it's it's kind of a boring film. 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.680 It doesn't have a lot going on, except it has 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:11.320 this fabulous wizard battle between Merlin and this this evil 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.560 witch who I think was created for the Like, it's 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.880 not Morgana or anything. It's just it's just this witch 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:22.040 that he battles, Mab I think her name is Mim Mim. Yeah, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.280 I think you think you're right. So anyway, it's a 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:28.920 battle between between two magic users and the whole The 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:30.880 rules of the battle are that they have to fight 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.680 each other. Uh. No one can turn invisible. You can 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.240 only transform into real world animals, not in to fantasy 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.200 animals and we're going to see who who winds up 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.240 on top. So it's a fabulous sequence where they jump 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.800 in and out of various animal forms and there, and 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:47.920 you know, generally trying to counter each other. And in 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.280 this it actually reminds me a lot of of of 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.679 another of a Japanese story about foxes that are engaging 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.440 in a similar competition, magical foxes who are transforming themselves 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.280 into different forms, and like one transforms into this and 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.400 the other transforms into something to sort of uh counter that, 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.840 and it just keeps going. And in this case, one 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.160 of them transforms into a snake and the other transforms 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.360 into a crab in order to of course clip that 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:17.840 snake in half if it can. Yeah, this comes back 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.760 to that mechanically intuitive pairing I was talking about where 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.720 I think people just have a natural tendency that goes 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.440 like this. So first step you see a thing that 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.040 is longer than it is wide, and then the second 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.800 step you automatically think about cutting or snipping it cross wise. 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.280 So snakes are naturally long and crabs have biological scissors 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:41.920 on their legs. Yes, um I also, yeah, Ni Nim 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.080 is great in this, but also I have to say 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.760 that Merlin has a wonderful animated mustache as long as 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.800 we're we're focusing on November mustaches here, And it makes sense, 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.160 right because we think of the like the mouth parts 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.200 of a crab, it's easy to to imply some sort 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.640 of a mustache going on there as well. Oh yeah, 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.080 it fits right in there. Now I want to say 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.400 something else here. I thought that this is worth noting 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.280 about the crab, the crab form, and about how the 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.640 crab is just ultimately this winning design. In fact, it's 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.760 such a winning design that, according to a two thousand 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.240 twenty one Harvard University study, the crab like body plan 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.920 evolved at least five times independently in both true crabs 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:26.400 and false crabs. So that's at least five cases of carcinization. Uh. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:30.800 This is a term that was coined by evolutionary biologist l. A. 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.480 Bora Dale in nineteen sixteen. And on top of this, 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.120 the Harvard study points out that the crab body has 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.880 been lost at least seven times, so this would be 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:45.440 a process that they refer to as d carcinization. So, um, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:47.800 I love this idea. I mean this kind of falls 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.840 into I think a popular meme about everything becoming crabs, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.400 about how, given enough time, the crab form will be 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.079 the form of everything because it just works so exceedingly well. Now, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.840 I do enjoy that meme. I guess technically, if we 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.000 want to be pedantic, it's about certain types of arthropods, 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.400 like you've already got certain a certain body plan to 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.800 start with, and if you're starting their things that are like, 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.280 you know, lobster ish or something in one way or 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.320 another often are shaped by their environment to become more 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.560 crab like. But yeah, yeah, thumbs up to the meme. 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.560 So the first crab I thought we might talk about 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.599 here today, uh sometimes referred to as the Yeti crab 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.960 or the hof crab. It's it's actual name is perhaps 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.840 a better suited for this interesting creature. Now, there are 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.280 a few different varieties, but the one of the first 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.040 that was really discovered that really set the trend is 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.160 Kiwa Hersuta. Kiwa is the name of the Maori sea god, 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.520 and then Hersuita is Latin for Harry. So Kiwa Hersuta 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.679 was discovered by a team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.800 in two thousands six along the Pacific Antarctic Ridge south 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.360 of Easter island and it is a is a wonderful 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:04.600 looking creature, this pale, hairy looking crab, kind of elongated looking. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.320 I would say, it looks a little bit like, you know, 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.040 some sort of a lobster perhaps, but it has no 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.640 eyes and it lives on hydrothermal vents. So this discovery 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.359 gave us not only a new species, but a new genus, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.520 that Keywa genus. And there are other Cua crabs that 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.480 have popped up, including Kiwa ty lerry found off the 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.880 Southern found in the Southern Ocean off of Antarctica. And 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.200 this species is probably my favorite, as in my opinion, 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.240 it's a little more cute looking, it's less elongated, and 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.120 it's more it's more plump. It looks I don't know, 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.200 it just looks like like like it it belongs in 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.360 a cartoon, you know, yes, And it's a great example 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.640 of the kinds of things we were just talking about, 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.840 with these sort of converging forms of different types of 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.000 of marine arthropods. Because technically the Kywa genus are not 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.760 true crabs. I think they are a type of lobster 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.320 or lobster related organism. But they're they're super cool. I 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.559 mean they're also focusing just on Tylery here it has 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:10.120 a tiny habitat, a mere thermal envelope of a few 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.480 square meters deep along the East Scotia Ridge. Um, it's 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.680 here that they live by these black smokers. These are vents, 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.120 These a chimney like vents that spew dark water that 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:26.320 reaches temperatures of roughly seven degrees fahrenheit or three degrees celsius. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.200 They live in heaps here, sometimes like six thousand crabs 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.520 per square meter, and they're cramped in here because outside 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.680 of this narrow proximity to the Black Smokers, the ocean 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:42.000 is extremely cold. Uh. So they're they're this fascinating example 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:47.440 of extremophile life suspended between boiling eruptions and chilling darkness. 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.679 Like this is the niche that they've carved out for themselves. 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.920 It's also interesting to imagine how they would spread between 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.440 one vent to another. You know that you almost have 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.640 to imagine their lifestyle is like a uh you know, 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.880 living on these tiny islands in a way. Yeah yeah, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.520 so yeah, so they're on these little little islands and 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.320 uh and they're they're jocking position here. So you tend 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.720 to find like the older bigger crabs are are are 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.360 towards the center, towards the heat, and the adolescents are 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.439 having to to scramble for position on the outside. Meanwhile, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.360 the hot, sulfur rich zone is is likely too much 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.640 for their eggs, so the females seem to have to 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.200 crawl off into the colder, darker waters to brood and 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.720 they likely die there. They likely just don't have the energy. 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:37.520 They spend all their energy going out to do that 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.719 and they can't make it back. But the females. Then 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.360 this releases a vast quantity of larvae into the water 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.640 column and some of these end up finding distant vents, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.439 others returning to their own vent um. So you have 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.640 this is how we end up with with with with 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.880 the larvae from from a particular hydrothermal vent location potentially 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.599 ending up at other vents. Yeah, like a lot of 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.520 organisms in the ocean, they've got this sort of broadcasting 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.480 method of reproduction that allows allows uh the organisms to 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.319 spread in their in their larval forms. Yeah. I was 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.680 reading a great article about this in on the BBC 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.800 website by Jonathan Amos wrote about them in two thousand 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.280 eighteen and points out the first of all the last 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.440 common ancestor of all these various YETI crabs, probably live 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.240 thirty to forty million years ago in the Eastern Pacific. 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.640 And so what we have here are these different far 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.520 flung ancestors due to the successful colonization of hydrothermal vents 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.320 by dispersed larvae UM and so the other. Then the 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.560 crazy thing about all this too is once they have 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.040 found of a place to thrive, that doesn't mean that 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.600 this is a forever home um. In Amos's words, these 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.240 various events quote switch on and off through time. So 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.080 event that has this thriving population of of of Yetti 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.440 crabs around it may just suddenly turn off, and then 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.840 everything around that just eyes in the cold um. And 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.480 then it may turn back on later uh, and then 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.560 it's a place that the larvae can can can can 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.960 arrive at and life can sort of begin again until 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.440 such time as it just turns off. Returning to the 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.120 island analogy, you have to imagine like a small island 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.160 that has a thriving ecosystem on it, and then suddenly 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.800 it just gets like a dome clamped over it that 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.600 turns it into a sub zero freezer. And then at 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.080 some point, maybe the dome is suddenly lifted and it's 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:33.000 exposed to the sun again. Yeah. Yeah, and so this 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.480 is why any given species of yeti crab has to 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.000 ultimately maintain multiple footholds at different events to survive. But 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.760 it also drives home the delicate how just how delicate 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:47.200 these event environments are, because um, if human activity wipes out, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.360 you know, potentially, just like it seems like just one 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.040 or two of these vent habitats, they could potentially limit 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:58.000 a given species holdings to an unsustainable level. Um. I 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.520 don't know that researchers have really worked out. I mean 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:02.800 we we I don't think we know enough about like 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.200 you know, all the different places that they live. But yeah, 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.760 it's it. Basically, the idea is we we we don't 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.160 know just how delicate the situation is. If they're depending 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.720 on vents that may again turn off and back on 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.200 again at any given moment, they have to have a 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.280 foothole in a certain number, And if you start digging 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.600 into that number through deep sea mining or some other 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.280 human venture, then yeah, you potentially put them in in 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.320 an unsustainable place. Won't someone think of the dear crustaceans, 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.960 I mean, they are so cute. I mean it is uh, 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.800 probably easier than than with a lot of Arthur pods 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.640 in the ocean. Degenerate sympathy for them because they look 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.000 kind of like, yeah, these pale, fuzzy ticks. Uh, that 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.600 doesn't really folks sympathy, does it. But they yeah, they're 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:51.200 they're like plump and cute and I don't know they're good. Well. Also, Tyleria, 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.320 especially if you look at a picture of them from 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.920 a from above, it also kind of looked with the 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.800 pale colorization, it looks like a human skull from above 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.720 there's a human skull with skull cover colored legs and 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.920 claws coming out of it, which again doesn't sound very cute, 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.720 I guess, but um, but but it makes it makes 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:11.720 it a very interesting creature to look at. Now, I 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.399 should again stressed that we have different varieties and they 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.879 have some different um different features. For instance, tileery have 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.840 special spikes for scaling up those chimneys of the black smokers. Meanwhile, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.280 there's a species found near Costa Rica which is Kiwa 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.560 pura vita, which doesn't have claws at all. Um. So 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.320 you have the have the different varieties, but what they 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.400 seem to all have in common is their namesake hair, 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.600 which is in here at all but set which they 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.520 use to collect bacteria growing around the hydrothermal vents and 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.600 also to grow it within these uh what if it's 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.960 sometimes referred to as gardens on their bodies, and then 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.680 they use their delicate mouthparts to scoop up and consume 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.960 the bacteria. So they are you know, they're they're walking 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.600 around growing their own food, collecting their own food and 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.000 then growing it on their own body. It's pretty great. 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:09.439 Thank thank thank well. This actually connects directly to a 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.399 couple more examples I wanted to talk about. So the 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.920 first one is connected by the idea of these deep 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:21.320 sea dwelling uh crustaceans that can be found around hydrothermal vents. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.440 So I came across another report of interesting crab feeding behavior. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.320 This this was from a short article and New Scientists 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.560 by Sam Wong, and the subject of this uh this 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.160 right up was video footage that had been captured by 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.320 a robotic deep submersible that was based off of the 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.160 Schmidt Ocean Institute's ship, the foul Core, and it had 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.760 been exploring life around deep hydrothermal vents in the Pacific 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.200 at a depth of thirty meters so way way down. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.040 This was in the Mariana region. Well, I have to 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:55.880 slow down there. That it was called the foul Core. 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.680 So it was named for the Wish Dragon and the 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.600 Never Ending Story. I don't know what's awesome it so well, yeah, 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.040 I don't know this fal Core in the Never Earning 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.399 Story named after something else or is that original to 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.000 the book? I don't know offhand, so I cannot answer 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.800 your question. But that is its name, all right? Or 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.840 are you gonna apply to set sail on the Falcore? Now? No, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.040 probably not, but I but I applaud the naming, uh 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.639 either way. So anyway, the submersible based off of this 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:29.119 ship was um capturing footage of crabs that were that 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.719 were around these hydrothermal hotspots, and this particular species was 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:38.320 known as austin O Greya Williams c. Apparently, not a 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.280 whole lot is known about them, but they inhabit these hotspots, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.600 and like many other deep sea creatures, they tend to 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:49.400 be pale and lacking eyes and so as to the 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.640 diet of these crabs, they have been observed eating some 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:58.040 regular things like snails and algae, but they have also 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.400 been observed engaging in brew rutle cannibalism. You can find 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.000 some video footage of this. Uh. It's it's of a 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:09.160 particularly frenzied quality. It's just sort of like a big 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.760 murder puddle of pale crabs ripping legs and claws off 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.760 and and running away with them. Uh and and and 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.000 of course in addition to eating other things in their environment. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.560 But on this expedition, footage was captured of these crabs 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.679 doing something a little gentler. They were appearing to groom 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:32.600 one another, eating bacteria off of the shells of con specifics. 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.119 So for example, you can see one crab going up 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.560 to another crab's leg and just sort of picking at it, 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.680 just picking it, not pulling the leg off and running 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:43.879 away with it, as they might be wont to do 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.359 in another situation, but just sort of like grazing along 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.120 the outside of the leg, getting some of this, uh, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:54.040 this bacterial matting off of the surface of the of 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:58.880 the exoskeleton. And this is really interesting behavior. It makes 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.800 me wonder, like, what does this indicate about the nature 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.199 of the crab? Is it possible this could have some 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.639 kind of social role within crab society? Like the social 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.320 grooming behaviors of primates. I mean, on one hand, that 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:15.800 seems kind of unlikely because these are you know, these 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.480 are crabs. They're not they're not social mammals, um, you know. 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.119 So it could just be that bacteria is delicious and 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.200 here are some right now on on my on this 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:27.720 neighbor's leg. But I guess we don't know that this 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.040 kind of thing. I'd be interested to see more research about, 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.880 like could there be a role for some type of 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:39.959 social grooming within these within these deep see Arthur pod communities. Interesting. Interesting, 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:42.800 Now I had in the background here, Joe, I had 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.640 to do some quick research. And first of all, I 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.000 can confirm that the RV Falcore is in fact named 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.679 after the Wish dragon in The never Ending Story. Um. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:56.159 It was. It was originally called the Cea Falcon, but 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.160 then it was retrofitted um later um and I believe 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.520 two thousand nine or so, and then it was renamed 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:08.280 the foul Core. Now the name Foulcore. Incidentally, Falcore is 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.960 the English uh name for the Wish dragon in the 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.520 English translation of Michael Linda's The Never Ending Story. In 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:21.080 the German the name is fukor fuc Hu. Are derived 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:27.120 from the Japanese term for lucky dragon fukur you uh 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.600 if I'm saying that correctly, And apparently it was changed 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.800 in the English translation because, um, the name future sounds 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.400