New Crabs, Sea Life Discovered near Antarctic Sea Vents

Humanity gets its first glimpses of deep sea life in one of the world's most remote locations.

If you're like us, you spent a good portion of the last week planted in front of a television, hand firmly on beer, eyes glued to BBC's latest enviro-documentary series, Frozen Planet. As such, the recent discovery of a whole new ecosystem around Antarctic sea vents full of never-before-seen marine life will leave you both fascinated and terrified. The underwater vents expel powerful streams of burning hot, smokey water, making the surrounding areas just warm enough to sustain life. In the case of these Antarctic vents, those lifeforms include vast numbers of white, hairy-chested yeti crabs (click through here if you want to never sleep again), adorable ghost-white octopi, predatory, seven-armed star fish, and a veritable menagerie of barnacles, snails, anemone, and more. The yeti crabs, though, stand out above all others, as they mass together in huge numbers around the vents, and appear to cultivate bacteria on the hairs of their chests. That bacteria is then eaten for sustenance. Ain't Earth grand?