In an undersea twist on the family dog appearing just as pizza slips off a plate, crabs at Taiwan’s shallow-water hydrothermal vents swarm to feast on the gentle rain of plankton killed whenever toxic plumes shoot straight up from the vents.
Peter Ng of National University of Singapore and his colleagues puzzled over what bonanza could support the many crabs observed at shallow vents around Kueishan Island in northeastern Taiwan.
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