The Many Clawed, Blind Lobsters of the Deep

Within the profound darkness of the ocean’s depths, organisms face a alternative regarding their visible capabilities. Some species evolve specialised eyes that develop to astonishing sizes, as seen in creatures like the large squid or owl fish. Alternatively, there’s the choice to desert the idea of eyes altogether. It’s the latter situation that introduces us to an intriguing case: the “blind lobsters,” a peculiar group of 38 lobster-like crustaceans referred to as Polychelidae. These creatures solely inhabit the deep sea, dwelling at depths exceeding 5,000 meters (16,000 ft). Members of this group sometimes exhibit both absent or vestigial eyes, together with lowered or solely absent eye stalks.

Nonetheless, their lack of eyesight isn’t probably the most outstanding side of those creatures. In contrast to typical lobsters, which possess two claws, Polychelids boast as much as 5 pairs of claws. They characteristic two bigger claws, adopted by 4 smaller but equally intimidating ones. The identify of the group, “Polycheles,” derives from the Greek phrases that means “many-clawed.”

Whereas one would possibly assume scientists are primarily intrigued by the blind, multi-clawed nature of those creatures. However they’re advanced. Scientists and Poychelids alike.  Polychelid our bodies present proof of a transition from shrimp-like to lobster-like kinds. Regardless of their lobster-like look, they lack sure primitive traits, akin to a pointed telson (back-end) as a substitute of the rounded telson present in typical lobsters. This look is just like one other group of bizarre crustaceans, Eryon, courting again to the Jurassic and thus making Polychelids considerably of a dwelling fossil just like the Coelacanths.  But intriguingly Eryon dwelled within the heat shallow seas of the Jurrassic.  The query of why they migrated to the deep sea remained unanswered—did they search refuge in these depths, as prompt for different deep-sea taxa? Current fossil and genetic proof means that they’ve all the time inhabited these depths since their evolutionary origins within the center Jurassic interval.

Chang, Su-Ching, Shane T. Ahyong, and Ling-Ming Tsang. “Molecular phylogeny of deep-sea blind lobsters of the household Polychelidae (Decapoda: Polychelida), with implications for the origin and evolution of those “dwelling fossils”.” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 192 (2024): 107998.

Bezerra, Luis Ernesto Arruda, and Felipe Bezerra Ribeiro. “Primitive decapods from the deep sea: first file of blind lobsters (Crustacea: Decapoda: Polychelidae) in northeastern Brazil.” Nauplius 23 (2015): 125-131.