Alvinocarididae is a family of shrimp, originally described by M. L. Christoffersen in 1986 from samples collected by DSV Alvin, from which they derive their name. Shrimp of the family Alvinocarididae generally inhabit deep sea hydrothermal vent regions, and hydrocarbon cold seep environments. Carotenoid pigment has been found in their bodies. The family Alvinocarididae comprises 7 extant genera.
Mirocaris is a genus of shrimp associated with hydrothermal vents. Sometimes considered the only genus of the family Mirocarididae, Mirocaris is usually placed in the broader family Alvinocarididae. Mirocaris is characterized by a dorsoventrally flattened, non-dentate rostrum, as well as the possession of episodes on the third maxilliped through to the fourth pteropod. The genus contains two species, M. fortunata and M. indica. The two species are found in different oceans, and can be distinguished by the pattern of setation on the claw of the first pereiopod.
Mictyris is a genus of brightly coloured crabs, placed in its own taxonomical family, the Mictyridae. It inhabits the central Indo-West Pacific region. These crabs congregate on mud flats or beaches in groups of a few thousand, and filter sand or mud for microscopic organisms. They congregate during low tide, and bury themselves in the sand during high tide or whenever they are threatened. This is done in wet sand, and they dig in a corkscrew pattern, leaving many small round pellets of sand behind them.
Kiwa hirsuta is a crustacean discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean. This decapod, which is approximately 15 cm (5.9 in) long, is notable for the quantity of silky blond setae covering its pereiopods. Its discoverers dubbed it the "yeti lobster" or "yeti crab".
Kiwa is a genus of marine decapods living at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. The animals are commonly referred to as "yeti lobsters" or "yeti crabs”, after the legendary yeti, because of their "hairy" or bristly appearance. The genus is placed in its own family, Kiwaidae, in the superfamily Chirostyloidea.
Tuerkayana hirtipes is a species of terrestrial crab.
Discoplax is a genus of terrestrial crabs. It is very closely related to the genus Cardisoma.
Latreilliidae is a small family of crabs. They are relatively small, long-legged crabs found on soft bottoms at depths of up 700 metres (2,300 ft) in mostly tropical and subtemperate waters around the world. Their carapace is very small and doesn’t cover the bases of their legs, which protrude from the cephalothorax in a spider-like manner. The family and its type genus are named after Pierre André Latreille. The oldest known fossils from the Latreillidae have been dated to the middle of the Cretaceous period. It comprises seven extant species.
Alviniconcha is a genus of deep water sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Provannidae. These snails are part of the fauna of the hydrothermal vents in the Indian and Western Pacific Ocean. These and another genus and species within the same family are the only known currently existing animals whose nutrition is derived from an endosymbiotic relationship with a member of bacteria from phylum Campylobacterota and Gammaproteobacteria, occurring as endosymbionts within the vacuoles of Alviniconcha ctenidia. All species of Alviniconcha are thought to be foundational species found near hydrothermal venting fluid supplying their bacterial endosymbionts with vent derived compounds such as hydrogen sulfide. These snails can withstand large variations in temperature, pH, and chemical compositions.
Hexapodidae is a family of crabs, the only family in the superfamily Hexapodoidea. It has traditionally been treated as a subfamily of the family Goneplacidae, and was originally described as a subfamily of Pinnotheridae. Its members can be distinguished from all other true crabs by the reduction of the thorax, such that only seven sternites are exposed, and only four pairs of pereiopods are present. Not counting the enlarged pair of claws, this leaves only six walking legs, from which the type genus Hexapus, and therefore the whole family, takes its name. Some anomuran "crabs", such as porcelain crabs and king crabs also have only four visible pairs of legs. With the exception of Stevea williamsi, from Mexico, all the extant members are found either in the Indo-Pacific oceans, or around the coast of Africa.
Shinkaia crosnieri is a species of squat lobster in a monotypic genus in the family Munidopsidae. S. crosnieri lives in deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems, living off of the chemosynthetic activity of certain bacteria living on its setae.
Karstarma is a genus of karst-dwelling crabs formerly included in Sesarmoides.
Gandalfus yunohana is a species of blind crab in the family Bythograeidae found on hydrothermal vents on the eastern edge of the Philippine Sea Plate south of Japan. Because no light penetrates to such depths, the eyes of G. yunohana are immobile and unpigmented.
Cyanagraea praedator is a species of crab that lives on hydrothermal vents, and the only species in the genus Cyanagraea.
The Panopeidae are a family containing 26 genera of morphologically similar crabs, often known as "mud crabs". Their centers of diversity are the Atlantic Ocean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Kiwa tyleri, the Hoff crab, is a species of deep-sea squat lobster in the family Kiwaidae, which lives on hydrothermal vents near Antarctica. The crustacean was given its English nickname in 2010 by UK deep-sea scientists aboard the RRS James Cook, owing to resemblance between its dense covering of setae on the ventral surface of the exoskeleton and the hairy chest of the actor David Hasselhoff. The 2010 expedition to explore hydrothermal vents on the East Scotia Ridge was the second of three expeditions to the Southern Ocean by the UK led research consortium, ChEsSo.
Austin Beatty Williams was an American carcinologist, "the acknowledged expert on and leader in studies of the systematics of eastern American decapod crustaceans".
Colin McLay (1942-2022) was a New Zealand marine biologist and carcinologist. Educated at the University of Otago and the University of British Columbia, he served as an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Canterbury. He discovered several species of crab, including Desmodromia tranterae, Euryxanthops chiltoni, Gandalfus puia, and Hirsutodynomene vespertilio.
Gandalfus puia is the only known New Zealand species of crab in the family Bythograeidae, commonly known as the blind vent crabs. Like other blind vent crabs, it only lives in hydrothermal vent waters. This species was first described in 2007 after specimens were collected from the undersea volcanic ridge near the Kermadec Islands.
Gandalfus is a genus of crabs belonging to the family Bythograeidae. Gandalfus species occur around hydrothermal vents.
