{"id":589985,"date":"2026-09-04T13:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/589985\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T13:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:40:21","slug":"giant-crab-seen-marching-along-seafloor-what-happened-next-shocked-these-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/589985\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant crab seen marching along seafloor. What happened next shocked these scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marching determinedly across the seafloor with its scarlet body and long legs, the king\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/lobster-or-crab\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crab<\/a>\u00a0looks like something out of an alien invasion movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, researchers from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/multimedia\/video-playlist-ex1806-badday\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NOAA Ocean Exploration<\/a>\u00a0were surprised to see a large\u00a0lithodid crab (a type of king crab) snacking on a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/brittle-star-laying-eggs-great-barrier-reef\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">brittle star<\/a>\u00a0during the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/okeanos\/explorations\/ex1806\/welcome.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Windows to the Deep<\/a>\u00a0expedition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis poor brittle star is having a very bad day,\u201d says one researcher, as they watch the huge crustacean snap its prey\u2019s arms off and pop them in its mouth. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ocean.si.edu\/museum\/dr-michael-vecchione\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Vecchione<\/a>\u00a0[a scientist] joked that he\u2019s snacking on the arms kind of like hot wings,\u201d laughs another.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Footage shows a huge lithodid crab (a type of king crab) eating a brittle star. Credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration, Windows to the Deep 2018<\/p>\n<p>As the crab munches, brittle star body parts can be seen scattered in the substrate all around it. The camera zooms right into the crustacean\u2019s face as it tastes the brittle star arms then drops them. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He spits it out every time,\u201d says one of the scientists. \u201cHe\u2019s not so into it. Well, indecisive!\u201d adds another.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although it seems grim, this observation helps experts learn more about the lives of these creatures below the waves.\u00a0\u201cWhile a bit graphic to watch, predation events such as this offer scientists unique glimpses into the lives and behaviours of animals of the deep,\u201d writes NOAA in the video\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/multimedia\/video-playlist-ex1806-badday\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">caption<\/a>. \u201cThough predation events like these often amaze us, we are still learning about which are truly rare and which are just rarely observed.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n<p>Video and image credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration, Windows to the Deep 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marching determinedly across the seafloor with its scarlet body and long legs, the king\u00a0crab\u00a0looks like something out of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-589985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}