new animal resembling furry lobster

New Animal Resembling Furry Lobster Found

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_sc/france_new_crustacean

New Animal Resembling Furry Lobster Found

Tue Mar 7, 9:28 PM ET

PARIS - A team of American-led divers has discovered a new

crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is

covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers

said Tuesday.

Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so

distinct from other species that they created a new family and

genus for it.

The divers found the animal in waters 7,540 feet deep at a site 900

miles south of Easter Island last year, according to Michel

Segonzac of the French Institute for Sea Exploration.

The new crustacean is described in the journal of the National

Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The animal is white and just shy of 6 inches long -- about the size

of a salad plate.

In what Segonzac described as a "surprising characteristic," the

animal's pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands.

It is also blind. The researchers found it had only "the vestige of

a membrane" in place of eyes, Segonzac said.

The researchers said that while legions of new ocean species are

discovered each year, it is quite rare to find one that merits a

new family.

The family was named Kiwaida, from Kiwa, the goddess of crustaceans

in Polynesian mythology.

The diving expedition was organized by Robert Vrijenhoek of the

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

[via Boing Boing]

Tech Tags: cryptozoology new+species crustacean Kiwa+hirsuta

Easter+Island Michel+Segonzac Polynesian+mythology