Scientists reveal fighting secrets of crab named after David Hasselhoff

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Male ‘Hoff crabs’, a species residing near hydrothermal vents in the Antarctic seafloor, have evolved larger claws than their female counterparts to battle for mates, a new study reveals. open image in gallery A female and male ‘Hoff crab’ Dr Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist from the University of Portsmouth and lead author of the study published in the journal PLOS One, said: “This is the first study to show claw sexual dimorphism in yeti crabs which live exclusively in harsh deep-sea environments like hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. “Physical differences between males and females is a common feature of decapod crustaceans which live in shallow water, and usually it’s because the male is forced to guard the mate, or females have to divert their growth energy for reproduction.” The team compared the Hoff crab with another yeti crab, the Kiwa puravida found off Costa Rica, which does not show difference claw sizes between the sexes. open image in gallery A comparison of the female and male ‘Hoff crab’ Dr Roterman said: “This could be because the Costa Rica yeti crabs may be using their claws – which are longer and hairier than those of the Hoff crab – primarily for food production rather than fighting, or perhaps there is some other factor at play that we have yet to discover.