Latest Crab Stories
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The marsh systems around Cape Cod have been eroding at a rapid rate in the past few decades. As redOrbit reported in January, researchers from Brown University were able to find a cause and effect relationship between human interaction with the ecosystem and the rapid increase in the native purple crab population. As their research detailed, human manipulation of the region via recreational overfishing and the creation of drainage...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Private industry rarely has a stake in conservation, but a new study shows that reducing aquatic noise pollution could provide a financial boost for the fishing industry. A new study published in the journal Biology Letters found that the sounds of ship noise ramp up crab metabolism, potentially resulting in lower yields for commercial crabbers. Citing growing evidence that shows even a single noise exposure can affect a variety of...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Most cultures value the humane treatment and slaughter of their livestock, and now those same standards should be applied to their seafood, according to a new behavioral study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The study, from Queen's University Belfast professors Bob Elwood and Barry Magee, exposed common shore crabs to electrical shocks and found those crabs responding to the shocks in a way consistent with...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Imagine the surprise if you learned that a new species had been named after you. That's exactly what happened to Dr. Christopher Tudge of American University recently as he was reading a copy of the journal, Zootaxa. Finding out after-the-fact is fairly standard practice in the highly formalized naming ritual of new species, it seems. The new species, Aeropaguristes tudgei, is a type of hermit crab that Tudge recently...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online We all know that crabs walk sideways--it’s because that’s the way their legs bend. This side-walking trait allows them to move quickly into and out of small holes and crevasses to escape potential threats. So, we know how and why they walk. We just don’t necessarily know where they walk. That is, until now. Scientists this week from the Zoological Institute at the University of Greifswald, in cooperation with their...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online In their search for larger homes, land-based hermit crabs will socialize with their fellow decapods only to force them out of their shells and claim it for their own, researchers from the University of California-Berkeley have discovered. While all types of hermit crabs will claim abandoned snail shells as their own, only the terrestrial types of these crustaceans hollow them out and remodel the shells. This allows them to...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An unusually complete fossil unearthed in Bavarian Germany was found to depict the tragic last moments of a prehistoric horseshoe crab as it stumbled for its life over 150 million years ago. The crab’s fossilized track, which is over 31 feet in length, displays both the beginning and end of its death march that was the result of the arthropod falling into a stagnant lagoon, according to a recent report published in the journal...
The Philippines is the setting for the latest spectacular discovery: Four new species of crabs, most of which have purplish shells and live in lowland-forest ecosystems, discovered by a team of German scientists, reports National Geographic. The four new discoveries, all of which are found only on the island of Palawan, were co-discovered and described by Hendrik Freitag of Germany’s Senckenberg Museum of Zoology. “In the Aqua Palawana research program I am head of, we have been...
A team of scientists from Japan and the UK have built a computer that is inspired by a most unusual source -- the real-life movements and swarming behavior of soldier crabs, PCMag.com's David Murphy and Wired UK's Olivia Solon reported over the weekend. The researchers, who are affiliated with Kobe University and the University of the West of England (UWE), devised the system for defining computer logic based on the crabs' movements and their "natural tendency for swarming," which...
As any comic book lover knows, when superheroes band together the bad guys fall harder. The strength that comes in numbers is greater than the sum of its parts. The same holds true, researchers have recently learned, when different species of crabs (genus Trapezia) and snapping shrimp (Alepheus lottini) in the central Pacific band together to defend their coral homes from hungry seastars. In these frequent conflicts "one-plus-one doesn't always equal two, sometime it is more," explains...
Latest Crab Reference Libraries
The crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) is native to South and Central America. Its range includes Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, and extends to the northern areas of Uruguay and Argentina. It prefers a habitat with abundant water resources. Although the name implies that this raccoon’s diet consists of only crabs, it also consumes other crustaceans, like lobster, as well as fruits, amphibians, and turtle eggs. The crab-eating raccoon is similar in appearance to the common...
The Vernal Crab (Liocarcinus vernalis), is a small shallow-water crab found in the northeast Atlantic. It is commonly used as bait for Black Fish. Photo Copyright and Credit
The Great Spider Crab (Hyas araneus), is a species of crab found in Atlantic waters and the North Sea, usually below the tidal zone. It was reported around the Antarctic Peninsula in 2003. This was most likely due to transportation by human agency. Photo Copyright and Credit
The Halloween Crab (Gecarcinus quadratus or Gercarcinus ruricola), also known as the moon crab, should not be confused with the Halloween hermit crab. They dig burrows in rainforest habitat and are native to Central America. It lives in the forest at least some of its adult life. They have lungs that need to be moist all the time. If not, they could dry out and die. The Halloween crab is very territorial and will fight back if threatened. Photo Copyright and Credit
The Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis), also known as the Big Binding Crab and Shanghai Hairy Crab, is a medium-sized burrowing crab and native in the coastal estuaries of eastern Asia from Korea in the north to the Fujian province of China in the south. This crab migrates to the coastal waters of Europe and North-America. This species' distinguishing features are the dense patches of dark hair on its claws. The crab's body is the size of a human palm. The carapace width is 1.25 to...
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