http://imgur.com/gallery/pBHO9zL Kiwa hirsute. Simply put, these things are awesome. White and hairy, they do look fairly yeti-ish. But its where they live that makes them truly incredible. Yeti crabs live around hydrothermal vents, which are essentially cracks in the Earths tectonic plates allowing super-heated water to escape. Geysers and hot springs are their equivalent on land. Because of the nutrient rich water produced by the vents they can support an incredibly diverse range of sea creatures. The yeti crabs in particular are thought to feed off the nutrients by growing bacteria on their hair covered front claws. This would be like if you stopped showering and just lived off the mushrooms growing from behind your ears (that happens, right?) The bacteria then either convert the more toxic elements of the water into an edible form for the crab or are simply consumed by the crab. The water released from the vents ranges from 60 to 464°C, so the crabs literally endure boiling to get a meal. Discovered in 2005 by a team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Monterey, California, they are most closely related to squat lobsters which are actually crabs (common names in science are a bit odd like that). They were found at a depth of 2200 meters along the Pacific-Atlantic Ridge and since then another two species have been discovered on other hydrothermal vents in both these oceans. One, Kiwa tyleri, lives in the Pacific Ocean and has gained a second common name. The Hoff crab. After the actor David Hasselhoff, due to the hair like covering found on the underside of its exoskeleton. That's right, it looks like it has a hairy chest.