The Kermadec Islands are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean 800–1,000 km (500–620 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are 33.6 km2 (13.0 sq mi) in total area and uninhabited, except for the permanently staffed Raoul Island Station, the northernmost outpost of New Zealand.
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.
The Bythograeidae are a small family of blind crabs which live around hydrothermal vents. The family contains 16 species in six genera. Their relationships to other crabs are unclear. They are believed to eat bacteria and other vent organisms. Bythograeidae are a monophyletic, sister taxon of the superfamily Xanthoidea which split to inhabit hydrothermal vents around the Eocene.
Symphurus thermophilus is a species of tonguefish notable for being the only flatfish known to be an obligate inhabitant of hydrothermal vents. It is known from several widely dispersed locations in the western Pacific Ocean and occurs in great numbers. They are tolerant of harsh conditions and are often found in close association with elemental sulfur, including molten sulfur pools that exceed 180 °C in temperature. As they are not significantly different in appearance and feeding habits from other tonguefishes, they are thought to be relatively recent colonizers of vent ecosystems.
Bathymodiolus is a genus of deep-sea mussels, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Many of them contain intracellular chemoautotrophic bacterial symbionts.
Gandalfus yunohana is a species of blind crab found on hydrothermal vents on the eastern edge of the Philippine Sea Plate south of Japan. It lives at shallower depths than other members of the family Bythograeidae, at 420–1,380 m (1,380–4,530 ft). Because no light penetrates to such depths, the eyes of G. yunohana are immobile and unpigmented.
Euryxanthops is a genus of crabs in the family Xanthidae. It was originally established in 1983 by Garth & Kim to contain three species of deep-water crabs from Japan and the Philippines - Euryxanthops dorsiconvexus, Euryxanthops flexidentatus and Euryxanthops orientalis. Since then, several more species of this genus have been identified and described, and Euryxanthops currently contains:
Cyanagraea praedator is a species of crab that lives on hydrothermal vents, and the only species in the genus Cyanagraea.
Caprella bathytatos is a species of skeleton shrimp in the genus Caprella. It was described in 1998 by Joel W. Martin and Gary Pettit, who discovered it living on the mouthparts of the crab Macroregonia macrochira near hydrothermal vents in British Columbia.
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.
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.
Biospeedotrema parajolliveti is a species of trematodes inhabiting hydrothermal vent fishes in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. It can be distinguished from its family by its symmetrical testicular configuration; its uterus passing between the testes. Furthermore, it differs from Biospeedotrema jolliveti by being squat; wider than long; its tegument being wrinkled; its lobate testes, and the caeca "only just reach to the testes".
Caudotestis ventichthysi is a species of trematodes inhabiting hydrothermal vent fishes in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. It can be distinguished from its family by its symmetrical testicular configuration; its uterus passing between the testes. Furthermore, what differentiates it from its cogenerates is caecal length; cirrus sac length; its internal seminal vesicle's shape; vitelline extent and arrangement, as well as forebody length and egg-size.
Luckia is a genus of amphipod crustaceans in the family Pontogeneiidae, with the sole species Luckia striki. It is found in hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic Ocean.
Paulasterias mcclaini is a species of starfish in the family Paulasteriidae. It is found in deep water at hydrothermal vents.
Paulasterias tyleri is a species of starfish in the family Paulasteriidae. It is found in deep water at hydrothermal vents in the Antarctic. It is the type species of the newly erected genus Paulasterias, the only other member of the genus being Paulasterias mcclaini.
Phymorhynchus oculatus is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.
Eifuku and NW Eifuku (北西永福) are two seamounts in the Pacific Ocean. The better known one is NW Eifuku, where an unusual hydrothermal vent called "Champagne" produced droplets of liquid CO
2. Both seamounts are located in the Northern Marianas and are volcanoes, part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc. NW Eifuku rises to 1,535 metres (5,036 ft) depth below sea level and is a 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) wide volcanic cone.
Yonaguni Knoll IV is a seamount in the Okinawa Trough, east of Taiwan. It lies at about 745 metres (2,444 ft) depth and formed through Quaternary volcanism that yielded dacitic and rhyolitic magmas. The seamount is hydrothermally active, with numerous sites that are colonized by mussels and other marine animals. A submarine underground "lake" of liquid carbon dioxide has been identified at Yonaguni Knoll IV.
