Giant eyes
Here is an illustration of Callichimaera perplexa, quite possibly the strangest looking crab that ever lived.
[Read more about the strange crab]
Crabby fossil
Yale paleontologist Javier Luque found C. perplexa in Colombia in 2005. Since then, C. perplexa specimens have also turned up in Wyoming and Morocco.
Tiny crab
C. perplexa lived during the last dinosaur age, the Cretaceous period, about 95 million years ago.
Crustacean diversity
Crabs come in many shapes and sizes. But C. perplexa (center) might be the strangest of all of them. It has giant baby-like eyes, a lobster-like shell, the claws of a frog crab and paddles like an ancient sea scorpion.
Excavation
Paleontologist Javier Luque searches for fossil crabs in the Colombian Andes.
Amazing find
This extinct crab is a chimera, meaning it combines traits from several extinct and living crabs and crustaceans.
Digging away
Luque (left) and Catalina Suarez, with the Colombian Geological Survey (center) dig for fossils in the Colombian Andes.
[Read more about the strange crab]