Newly-discovered ancient crab species is like nothing science has seen before

BGR.com ^ | April 25th, 2019 at 10:05 PM | Mike Wehner

[Red Badger]

When researchers discover fossils of species that are new to science it’s only natural that they attempt to find a place for them in the colossal tree of life, matching them up with related species that may even exist today. A newly-discovered species of ancient creature is pushing that practice to its absolute limit.

Tiny fossils discovered in both Colombia and the United States reveal the existence of a pint-sized marine animal that lived some 90 million years ago. It’s being called a crab, but the researchers who discovered it are quick to point out how dramatically different it is from any other known crab species.

The species is so strange, in fact, that its discoverers offer a nod to its bizarre nature in its very name. The tiny crab has been named Callichimaera perplexa and, as its name implies, its discovery has been rather confusing to scientists.

With curved, paddle-like legs for swimming and a pair of massive, all-seeing eyes dotting its pointed face, it’s built like no other crab in the fossil record. It’s unique not only for the strange features it boasts, but also for the common crab features it totally lacks.

“Callichimaera perplexa is so unique and strange that it can be considered the platypus of the crab world,” Yale’s Javier Luque, who led the research, said in a statement. “It hints at how novel forms evolve and become so disparate through time. Usually we think of crabs as big animals with broad carapaces, strong claws, small eyes in long eyestalks, and a small tail tucked under the body. Well, Callichimaera defies all of these ‘crabby’ features and forces a re-think of our definition of what makes a crab a crab.”

It’s a fantastic discovery that reminds us that no matter how varied life seems on present-day Earth, our planet’s history is filled with more bizarre evolutionary forks than we can possibly imagine.

[dfwgator]

[Bob434]

[[You’d need a lot of them, only the size of a quarter.]]

Yeah but if you put one on a pound of bread, You’d have a ‘1/4 pounder’

[Doogle]

...more like a flame thrower...

[BuffaloJack]

Kinda looks like one of those tiny jumping spiders.

[dhs12345]

Wait until it grows 100 ft tall and terrorizes Tokyo.

[T. Rustin Noone]

I think you are onto something. Based on the number of legs, I would be looking more towards the arachnaeid family than crabs. To wit, a horseshoe crab is actually a member of the spider family (number of legs and blood serum).

[BuddhaBrown]

The image is upside down.

It’s a tick. With big balls.

[sasquatch]

A bar I used to frequent had a sign in the men’s room that read: “Please don’t drop toothpicks into the urinal - our crabs can pole vault”.

Let me guess, "The Sink" in Boulder, CO circa '70s.

[dainbramaged]

Your time period is correct - it was called the Fog Cutter, about 25 miles south of Seattle, and has since been bulldozed for a strip mall.
The bar owner was the brother of Charles Starkweather, the spree/serial killer who murdered eleven people accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend in Nebraska and Wyoming, circa 1956 - he was executed in 1959. We never asked him about Charlie.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger.

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse

[Bullish]

[dfwgator]

"Les poissons les poissons, how I love les poissons......."

[moovova]

"Sea lice are marine ectoparasites (external parasites) that feed on the mucus, epidermal tissue, and blood of host marine fish."

In other words...a Democrat.

Also...an interesting sea creature I found out about while taking a marine biology class...the snapping shrimp. They were small little guys hiding in the NC coastal jetty rocks. You really couldn't appreciate the power of their "snap" until you held one in your hand. Very interesting!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae

[Red Badger]

Seen em!...................

[piasa]

Looks like a raninoida except for they eyes. I wonder if the eyes might have been like hos of a mantis shrimp?

[piasa]

amusing mantis shrimp vid:

https://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM

[piasa]

Raninoida...frog crabs. Pretty weird.

[deport]

An interesting article about history of the world. A century into
the future would be an interesting read if only it could be done.

The following link is to an article about the development of the
Americas going back many generations before Columbus sailed
the ocean blue. They talk in terms of 30,000 years or longer.

A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas

[Red Badger]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dna-search-first-americans-links-amazon-indigenous-australians-180955976/