Friday, October 25, 2013

Curent Event- Oceanus Magazine


                Lurking Benignly on the Seafloor, the 'Yeti' Crab is Discovered


          After diving in the unexplored areas of the ocean in the southeast Pacific, biologist Cindy Van Dover found an interesting and unusual creature never spotted before, now named the "Yeti" crab.  This crab  sparked much confusion and determination onto the scientists causing a lot of interest in finding out more about this strange creature.  Michel Segonzac, a biologist, examined the crab and found out more about its morphology, or the study of the forms of things.  He found that the crab belongs to a whole new family of crabs.  This new family of crabs is now named after the Polynesian goddess of crustaceans, Kiwaida (Nevala 1).  This crab has long arms with yellow-tinted white hairs, and the bacteria living in the crab's hair helps provide a steady source of crab food (Nevala 2).  In future studies, scientists will try and spot the differences between females and males.  This crab has not only caught a lot of interest with crustacean nerds, but also people in general love this kind of special crab (Nevala 1).  

          This article is extremely important.  We do not know half the creatures hiding at the bottom of the ocean and it is time that we appreciate how big this world really is (Nevala 1-2).  Like the rare and unusual"Yeti" crab, there are millions of creatures that are in the ocean and it is time that people really show an interest with the new species scientists discover.  Discovering rare creatures like this crab gave us a whole new second family of the deep sea crabs.  Every rare creature that we discover is a whole new species of life.  This article is important because it gave people the reminder that there is so much more at the bottom of the ocean that we have no idea exists until discovered. 

           The author of this article, Amy Nevala, did a great job on writing this article.  I really had vision of what this crab looked like through her detailed descriptions.  For example, Nevala mentioned that the crab had long arms, coated with yellow-tinted white hairs that feel like toothbrush bristles (Nevala 1). I liked how Nevala mentioned not just scientist's opinions of this crab, but also non-scientist's opinions were shown, which gave me a grasp on how this crab really interests many. One negative thing about this article is that many similar paragraphs could have been put together to make one whole paragraph.  Because there were way too many paragraphs, reading this seemed a little choppy. Otherwise, Amy Nevala did a great job in showing me that this crab is a really exciting discovery.        


-Helen Kocur

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lurking-benignly-on-the-seafloor--the--8216-yeti-8217--crab-is-discovered

2 comments:

  1. I was really interested reading your current event report. I liked how you described the article in a way that made it easy to understand and also very interesting at the same time. By first introducing the topic your article focused on and then giving the background of it, it was very easy to follow and not choppy or complicated to read. I thought that your paragraph on the article’s relevancy to the world was especially well presented. I thought that you made a good point about the fact that we don’t know a lot about the Earth and there are many mysteries that we are still uncovering even today. I also liked how you cited facts and opinions from the article in your review without taking the text word for word. I thought that it was good how your paraphrased all the information that you took directly from the article, and then offered your own opinion on it. Before reading your review, I had never before heard of the “yeti” crab. I thought that it was fascinating to learn about it, and fascinating to learn that there are many other creatures that we still have yet to discover. It seemed crazy to me that there is a whole family of crabs that we’ve never heard of before, but I guess that there are many animals and plants and species that we don’t know about, given how huge the Earth is. My one suggestion for your review would be to expand a little more on the summary of the article. Although I think you offered a good introduction to the topic, I think you could have talked more about the discovery process and how it came about. Overall though, I thought that your review was very insightful and I liked reading it and learning about the yeti crab.

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  2. I loved the topic you picked for your current event report. Since we've been learning a lot about space and astronomy, it was interesting to read about things that are happening on earth and in the ocean. I liked how your summary of the article wasn't too long and you included a lot of your own opinions about the article. I found it very interesting that there are still an unbelievable amount of creatures that we still haven't discovered in the ocean. We spend so much time trying to learn about things that are outside earth that we kind of forget about learning more about our own planet. I found it very interesting learning about the yeti crab, as I had never heard of it before. It looks like a mythical creature and not an animal that was actually discovered in the ocean. I think it's amazing that by finding this one crab, scientists have discovered a whole new family of crabs that they never knew existed before. What biologists and scientists have found out about this crab is amazing, like the fact that it's long hair are a steady source of crab food. I can't wait to possibly read more about the yeti crab and the rest of the crabs in it's family. Although I think you wrote an amazing review, you were a bit repetitive. Overall, I loved learning about the yeti crab and it was very interesting to learn about something in the ocean instead of space.

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