Remember the Hoff Crab? You bet your bippy you do. You can thank Nicolai Roterman for that. Nicolai, a hydrothermal vent biologist and a member of the expedition that found this hairy crab, coined the name Hoff Crab while still on board.
To commemorate this very special event Nicolai’s sister watercolored the specimen caught on the SW Indian Ridge at 3000 meters depth.
This painting was the inspiration for a Nicolai’s recent tattoo.
We at DSN (and Southern Fried Science) gladly welcome Nicolai into our nerdy, tattooed, awesome, and salty ranks. You can follow Nicolai on twitter at @Elpipster
Craig McClain is the Executive Director of the Lousiana University Marine Consortium. He has conducted deep-sea research for 20 years and published over 50 papers in the area. He has participated in and led dozens of oceanographic expeditions taken him to the Antarctic and the most remote regions of the Pacific and Atlantic. Craig’s research focuses on how energy drives the biology of marine invertebrates from individuals to ecosystems, specifically, seeking to uncover how organisms are adapted to different levels of carbon availability, i.e. food, and how this determines the kinds and number of species in different parts of the oceans. Additionally, Craig is obsessed with the size of things. Sometimes this translated into actually scientific research. Craig’s research has been featured on National Public Radio, Discovery Channel, Fox News, National Geographic and ABC News. In addition to his scientific research, Craig also advocates the need for scientists to connect with the public and is the founder and chief editor of the acclaimed Deep-Sea News (http://deepseanews.com/), a popular ocean-themed blog that has won numerous awards. His writing has been featured in Cosmos, Science Illustrated, American Scientist, Wired, Mental Floss, and the Open Lab: The Best Science Writing on the Web.
The world is full of win tonight.
Don’t you just have to love crazy sciencenerds?
Fully Awesome!
My friend Leo Pugram runs Yap Tribal Tattoo on Yap and will really appreciate this piece. Yap’s Dr. Margie Falanruw once did a study of Yapese folk ichthyology that that’s a great source of info.
https://www.facebook.com/YapTribalTattoo
I don’t have one, but I believe that tattoos should be earned and that is a well deserved!
Awesome tattoo.. I guess this crab is really something..