Gulf of Mexico - The research team actually only wanted to take samples of a coral species from the depths of the sea to examine them later in the laboratory. But in addition to the samples, they also caught a cute baby crab in the net!

The US environmental agency NOAA ("National Oceanic and Atmosperic Administration") posted a video of the encounter on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

In it, a small, spiny baby crab can be seen sitting calmly on a researcher's hand and looking into the camera.

The little crustacean quickly became a mega star on the internet , with the short video reaching an incredible 10.6 million views within just a few days (as of January 22, 2025)!

In the video description, the research team wrote: "We found it during an operation in the Gulf of Mexico, which was actually intended to collect samples of mesophotic and deep-sea coral species for later study and propagation in the laboratory."

Many users online were blown away by the sight of the little crab. Some wrote: "He looks like he's just woken up from an incredibly restful nap" or "He looks nice!" Some even gave the little crab a name. One comment reads: "A very polite guy. I'll call him Peter from now on."

According to a report by the German Press Agency, the cute animal is a specimen of the king crab species "Neolithodes agassizii".