When this tusk shell was brought up it was a surprise when a hermit crab poked out. Notice the large, operculate-shaped claw that this hermit can use to tightly cover the shell opening when it retracts into the shell. Dr. Rafael Lemaitre, NMNH curator of decapod Crustacea, has identified this hermit crab as Pylopagurus discoidalis.

Photos like this document color information for species such as this one that live in deeper waters, and in the past could only be collected from ships using awkward trawls or dredges, and then sent to museums where they might sit for decades until being identified. By that time, the color was lost. That process is a far cry from what's going on here in Curacao with the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP), where specimens are quickly and carefully examined one by one, given a code number, photographed, DNA sampled, and identified by taxonomic experts.