New species of crab has been discovered by the scientists that existed in the sea 95 million years ago called ‘Callichimaera perplexa’. This name is an allusion to a Greek mythological creature and means “perplexing beautiful chimera”.
The fossil found suggested that the small pocket-size crab had a tiny lobster-esque shell, legs flattened like oars and huge, and Pound Puppies’ eyes that protruded from its head. This may be due to its excessive use of the eyes. This is a huge discovery according to postdoctoral paleontologist at Yale University and the University of Alberta, Dr Javier Luque because this will make scientists “rethink what a crab is.”
“It gives us information about how novel body forms can evolve over time,” added Luque.
He made the discovery in 2005 in the mountains of Pesca, Boyaca in Columbia while hunting for fossils as an undergraduate geology student. After studying the findings thoroughly, Luque and his team published it in the journal, Science Advances. The creature is so peculiar that it is being termed as “the platypus of the crab world.”
The crab is from the mid-cretaceous period and it must have hailed from what is now Colombia, Northern Africa and Wyoming. With large eyes, legs built for swimming and wrench-like claws it is being considered to be a powerful hunter.
Luque class this his “beautiful nightmare because it was so beautiful and frustrating” for the researchers to comprehend.
“This new transitional fossil is making us rethink how crabs have evolved over time because it’s introducing this unique body form we weren’t aware of before,” said Heather Bracken-Grissom, an evolutionary biologist at Florida Internal University. This discovery reveals “an early lineage in the crab tree of life”, she added.