Fascinated to find out about these crabs on a TV documentary the other day. They live in colonies in the South Atlantic between south America and Antarctica. They were only discovered in 2010. They live around hydro-thermal sulphur geezers in temperatures which may reach 350C.
The crabs are covered in hairs which in turn are populated by sulphur-oxidising bacteria, which convert Sulphur into Carbon, which the crabs ingest when they eat the bacteria.
The generic name ‘Hoff crab’ was given to it by researchers in 2010, as the hairiness of the crab reminded them of David ‘The Hoff’ Hasslehoff’s chest.
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