Wednesday, March 3, 2010

THE WORLD'S LARGEST CRUSTACEAN


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The Coconut Crab is freaking me out a little, although they are harmless, I would prefer it if our paths never cross.

They come from the Indo-Pacific Islands region where they climb coconut trees. They have extremely strong pinchers that can easily crack open a coconut so that they can feast on the soft flesh inside. Similar to hermit crabs the Coconut Crab also lives in a borrowed shell when young. As they mature (that take up to eight years) the shells gets discarded for new ones until their flesh hardens and they no longer need them.

The crabs usually comes out at night. During the day they hide in burrows that they have lined with coconut fibres to retain humidity so that their bodies does not dry out.

Because the crabs are edible they are almost extinct.

via scienceray.com

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