Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Algomandanes. Returned from
Speaker 2: accidental imprisonment within the magic mirror of Moore, I am
Speaker 2: as always your tireless creature chronicler. But mere monsters, of course,
Speaker 2: hold no mystery for me these days. Dragons, our drab,
Speaker 2: and even the specula fish in the mirror failed to
Speaker 2: rouse me during my imprisonment, and so once more I
Speaker 2: turn my attention to the strange fauna of a land
Speaker 2: called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider
Speaker 2: the mighty coconut crab.
Speaker 3: Common name cocoanut crab scientific classification burgus, later, frequency and
Speaker 3: range various islands of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, size
Speaker 3: up to three feet or point nine meters across, diet fruit, nuts, seed,
Speaker 3: and carrying treasure hoard none challenge raady two, also known
Speaker 3: as the rabble crab. The cocoanut crab resembles nothing so
Speaker 3: much as a gnarl disembodied claw. It is not a
Speaker 3: true crab, but rather a giant terrestrial species of hermit crab.
Speaker 3: As adults, however, they outgrow their need for pilfered shells
Speaker 3: and instead develop a tough, leathery exoskeleton that provides ample
Speaker 3: protection on their scattered island habitats. They are the largest.
Speaker 2: Land living arthropod on earth. Nocturnal scavengers, the cocoanut crabs
Speaker 2: spend the daylight hours in their rocky burrows and then
Speaker 2: venture out in the dark to find morsels of fruit
Speaker 2: or nut, including their namesake, the coconut, which they can
Speaker 2: climb trees to obtain if need be. Meat, however, is
Speaker 2: very much on the menu for these lumbering creatures, as
Speaker 2: they'll gladly tear into carrion should they chance across it,
Speaker 2: and shockingly, they may also even actively hunt living prey. Yes,
Speaker 2: biologists have in fact observed them sneak attacking red footed
Speaker 2: boobies in the night. No tree branch, it would seem,
Speaker 2: is safe from their hunger stealth roll success. The cocoanut
Speaker 2: crab benefits from great strength, with specimens able to lift
Speaker 2: weights of thirty kilograms or sixty six pounds. And then
Speaker 2: there are the claws to consider, capable of closing with
Speaker 2: a force equal to eighty times the individual's own body mass,
Speaker 2: indeed making it more than capable of breaking into a coconut,
Speaker 2: as well as into the soft bodies of various birds, boobies, swallows,
Speaker 2: or otherwise pincer damage. The coconut crab is understood to
Speaker 2: be an evolutionary offshoot of the various hermit crab species.
Speaker 2: This would have occurred some two point six to five
Speaker 2: point three million years ago, perhaps due to changes that
Speaker 2: robbed the robber crab here of its shelter options, forcing
Speaker 2: it to grow larger and tougher in order to thrive
Speaker 2: in a shell free terrestrial environment. Now, to be sure,
Speaker 2: juvenile coconut crabs still make use of scaven shells, and
Speaker 2: we must also note that while the adults live and
Speaker 2: die on land and can never truly return to the ocean,
Speaker 2: they still must release their eggs eggs into the water
Speaker 2: in order to ensure the next generation of coconut crabs
Speaker 2: in the ocean. The hatched free swimming shrimp like larvae
Speaker 2: called Zoea disperse, clinging to bits of vegetation, even coconut husks,
Speaker 2: for a period of several weeks before becoming equally free
Speaker 2: swimming and shrimp like glaucothowe, which find suitable shells on
Speaker 2: the seabed then they begin their march towards the various
Speaker 2: islands that will serve their fully terrestrial, juvenile and adult forms,
Speaker 2: an amazing journey. Humans never get to live as free
Speaker 2: swimming larvae, I mean, except for us wizards in certain circumstances.
Speaker 2: Of course, there are more mysteries concerning the coconut crab
Speaker 2: to consider, But for now I must retire my wizard's
Speaker 2: quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall,
Speaker 2: I'll return with even more wonders of the natural world. Hi,
Speaker 2: this is Robert Lamb. Thanks once more to the wizard
Speaker 2: Argomannanes for joining us on the episode. Sources for it
Speaker 2: included coconut crabs, the bird eating behemoth thriving on isolated
Speaker 2: tropical islands by Emily Osterloff Natural History Museum, the San
Speaker 2: Francisco Zoo, ruler of the atoll, the world's largest land
Speaker 2: invertebrate by Mark E. Lydra Frontiers and Ecology in the Environment,
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. A mighty claw pinching force of the coconut crab,
Speaker 2: the largest terrestrial crustacean by Oca at All Plos one
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen. Pinching simulation of the coconut crab considering the
Speaker 2: three D shape and internal characteristics of the robust claw
Speaker 2: exoskeleton Inowey at All Results in Engineering twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: Status of the coconut crab Burgess latro in Neo by
Speaker 2: a logi at All Pacific Community twenty fifteen, and to
Speaker 2: a very limited extent, my own recent observations in Raasha ONMPAC.
Speaker 2: Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing
Speaker 2: this episode. If you wish to contact Argomandanes with recommendations
Speaker 2: for future episodes, you could send an email to contact
Speaker 2: at stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com.
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