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Yeti CrabIts fuzzy, winter-white coat might look at home in the Himalaya, but the yeti crab was discovered skittering around hydrothermal vents about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) under the South Pacific off Easter Island (map) in March 2005.
The 6-inch (15-centimeter), blind crustacean—officially Kiwa hirsuta—is among the more than 6,000 new species discovered during the Census of Marine Life, a ten-year effort to document all sea life that concluded Monday. (See "Six-hundred-year-Old Worms Among Surprises of Ten-year Sea Survey.")The project's 500-plus expeditions have also amassed a visual legacy as unique as the organisms uncovered—from which National Geographic News has selected these images as the 13 best of the census. (Read more about the yeti crab.)
Photograph courtesy A. Fifis, IFREMER

13 Stunning Photos From 10-Year Sea Census

See "Mr. Blobby" and the other stars of our 13 favorite pictures from the Census of Marine Life, which concluded Monday.

October 6, 2010