New "Hairy Lobster" Crustacean Discovered and Classified

AviLazar writes "American-led divers discovered a new type of Crustacean, that resembles a lobster but has it's claws covered in 'sinuous, hair-like strands'. This species is so different, from other Crustacean's that it was classified with a new Family name: Kiwaida. Unfortunately for the Kiwaida, the AP is already using this blind creature and a salad plate in the same sentence."

just what i need

Great, now I get to pick hairs out of my teeth when I eat this, too?

Re:just what i need

Oh quit being shellfish - some people like the experience.

But seriously... what else are you eating that causes hairs to get stuck in your teeth?

Re:just what i need

>But seriously... what else are you eating that causes hairs to get stuck in your teeth?

McDonalds cheeseburgers

Re:just what i need

But seriously... what else are you eating that causes hairs to get stuck in your teeth?

Well, mangos, you pervert!

Seriously, some varieties of mango have in their flesh lots of annoying fibrous hairs connected to the seed. If you try to eat the fruit directly, those hairs get stuck in your teeth. Did I mention those mango varieties are absurdly cheap?

In some tropical countries there's a sex position called "the mango": just like the 69, but with hairs between the teeth. Really!

Re:just what i need

Bearded Clams! [thetoque.net]

Re:just what i need

I heard they also found a new type of hairy lobster off the brazilian coast ... but it only had a thin strip of hair down the middle!

Re:just what i need

You're thinking of the bearded clam.

Obviously

you must have remarkably poor technique.

The edible parts are hairless.

Re:Obviously

You must not be asian.

The important question is

what do they taste like?

Re:The important question is

From the article: "The animal is white and 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) long -- about the size of a salad plate."

I imagine they taste pretty darn good since they've obviously been intelligently designed as a salad course.

Re:The important question is

It tastes great and after youve eaten it you can wipe your chin with its carcass!

Its lunch and a napkin.

Re:The important question is

Is that an African Salad plate or a European Salad plate?

Hairy Lobster?

I've heard of a hairy clam but never a hairy lobster.

Re:Hairy Lobster?

Finally, an honest slahsdotter who admits to hearing about a hairy (bearded) clam, but not seeing one. :)

Re:Hairy Lobster?

Oh, we've seen plenty. Touched, on the other hand...

Re:Hairy Lobster?

pixels != seeing

"Furry" lobster?

So now furries will be dressing up as this? *shudders*

Why hairy?

This raises obvious questions about the value of the 'hairs'.

Given that it is blind, I suppose they may be tactile, like a cat's whiskers.

Or perhaps detritous gets stuck in the hairs and it is a rudimentary filter feeder.

Or perhaps most lobsters shave regularly, but since this one's blind... nah.

Re:Why hairy?

The equivalent article at the BBC mentions bacteria living in the hair: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4785482. stm [bbc.co.uk]

Wait a second..

Can lobsters get crabs?

Hairs

The "hairs" are probably not what we think of as hair, but probably serve as some kind of sensory system, to detect the movement of currents or perhaps the movement of prey nearby, since according to the article: "It's also blind. The researchers found it had only 'the vestige of a membrane' in place of eyes, Segonzac said."

What makes it especially interesting

Is that many "blind" fish exist, trapped in underground lakes where eyes serve no purpose. Fish transported there don't become blind, it is only the fish that have been there countless generations. HOWEVER, they go blind by a membrane growing over the eye. The eye is still there and research (from what I understand) suggests that the eye is still fully functional.

Here, there is no eye, there is only a membrane. This suggests one of two possibilities. Either it has existed in conditions where light would serve no purpose for FAR longer than the "blind" fish - such that the eye has devolved completely, or it predates the evolution of the eye entirely.

This may be testable. It's believed this new crustacean is a new species, but the only real test for this would be to run a DNA test and compare it against known crustacean DNA types. This would also give a good indication of how ancient the species is, as we'd then know how much junk DNA there was and if/when it split off from any other known species.

Talking of DNA, there have been a lot of new species discovered recently, but I've not heard of much DNA work being done and there are still VERY few species in any of the online DNA databases I've seen. I can't help but feel that this is an area of work that isn't being utilized as much as it could be. Sure, it's not cheap, but the masses of DNA sequencing labs that have sprouted up for genealogical DNA work can't possibly be getting enough orders to keep running. There must surely be some way of tapping into existing resources that would bring the cost of the work down to affordable levels.

But, then, maybe not. Absolute production-line marker recognition of one Y chromosome and mDNA of a well-known species over a very narrow time-frame is relatively trivial compared to charting actual base-pairs and chromosomes over an unmapped type of DNA for a species of uncertain classification, where the nearest point of reference might be anywhere from very recent to a few hundred million years apart.

Even so, DNA research for species identification must surely be an area that could supplement the income of such labs, the equipment would only need to be able to do enough work to produce preliminary results of some sort, the promotional value can't hurt, and it would give researchers something more than "it looks really different" to go by.

Bigger pic

There's a bigger pic on bbc, reminds me of the big hug from the soup adverts.

Pic [bbc.co.uk]
Article [bbc.co.uk]

Looks great...

I want one of those to hang on my rear view mirror.

Jack Handey

"People laugh when I say that I think a jellyfish is one of the most beautiful things in the world. What they don't understand is, I mean a jellyfish with long, blonde hair."

Evolution at work

The hair, while surprising, is not if you consider that it could just be a sensory organ [nih.gov]. Note how evolution deprecated the critter's eyes since the hairs would probably be more effective in the 7500 foot depth where it lives. Once in a while it is nice to see that there are still things to be discovered.

Standard Units of Measure

Since when was a salad plate a unit of measure?

Re:Standard Units of Measure

It's a reference point that suggests that this scientific discovery is more of an appetizer than a full meal. Even scientists are humans first. That means when we discover something new, we have to give it a location on the food chain.

Re:Standard Units of Measure

Here is its location in the food chain, between soup and dessert.

Become a member of PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals.

Re:Standard Units of Measure

Oh, my... you are correct sir. Let's send a letter to the editor.

In Re: Salad Plate dimension.

I read your recent hirsute lobster tale (pun very much intended) recently and was flummoxed by your use of "salad plate" as a measure of what I'm guessing is area. Could you please restate the size in dimensions your readership could understand? Perhaps football fields, breadboxes, or tons of TNT?

Thank you humbly,
A.Coward, Esq.

Classify it?

Don't just classify it, provide a recipe too!

New Taxonomy

Here is the new Taxonomy order:

Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Yummy-ness!

Re:New Taxonomy

I think you have it a bit out of order. At least for me, yummy-ness clearly comes before Order.

Re:New Taxonomy

But you have to Order it first. How else will it get to the table to check it's yummy-ness?

I know what Dr Zoidberg has been up to

My mother was right! It will make hair grow on your hands.

the squatter

Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it.

These scientists obviously don't know squat! [divetrip.com]

Re:the squatter

They do.
From the BBC article: "From its general shape and appearance, the new creature resembles freshwater "squat lobsters" found in South America. But Dr Segonzac said that genetic analysis showed it was closer to marine members of this group."

After a lifetime of hoping...

Finally! A crustacean I can hug!!!

Thank God

At first I misread the title as: "New 'Hairy Lobster' Crustacean Discovered in Classifieds"

I now feel safe enough to creepily browse myspace again...

It's quite obvious what happened...

An albino tarantula raped a lobster as it was scavenging near shore.

Is it tasty though?

A lot of deep sea creatures have ammonia in them for anti-freeze and are not very tasty.

Re:Is it tasty though?

A lot of deep sea creatures have ammonia in them for anti-freeze

Not saying you're wrong, but why would they? It doesn't make sense. After all, the pressure at depth stops the water from freezing, and so would automatically do the same for any creatures adapted to that environment. Chemical antifreeze would only be required for near-surface beasties, where the pressure isn't there to do the job.

What I'm wondering is what the hairs do when moulting: do they stay with the old shell, or pull through leaving sieve-like holes? The latter would seem to be extraordinarily difficult.

Wait a minute

I thought "Hairy Lobster" was the upcoming Ubuntu release...

Blonde Hair

So blondes aren't going extinct [nbc10.com] after all - they're just just mutating into a more intelligent form.

Dear god..

this is by FAR the worst grammar I have ever seen in a summary. I am actually depressed.

"American-led divers discovered a new type of Crustacean,(comma unnecessary) that (which)resembles a lobster but has it's (its, dammit) claws covered in 'sinuous, hair-like strands'. This species is so different, (comma unnecessary) from other Crustacean's (apostrophe inappropriate) that it was classified with a new Family name: Kiwaida. Unfortunately for the Kiwaida, the AP is already using this blind creature and a salad plate in the same sentence."

Re:Dear god..

You'd see a lot more accuracy in grammar if people had to successfully compile a statement before being able to get their point across.

Harry Lobster

And the Goblet of Butter

New, Delicious Species Discovered

Life imitates The Onion: New, Delicious Species Discovered [theonion.com]

Re:American-led divers ...

It _was_ a French scientist who discovered it but then he immediately surrendered to it and it took the arrival of an American scientist to capture it and haul it back for interrogation whereupon it was immediately killed. Rumsfeld disavows all knowledge of this but promises to launch a full investigation.