WEBVTT - The Mystery of Crab Boxing 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from House stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.239 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to stuff to blow 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.239 your mind. My name is Robert Lam and my name 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:23.720 is Christian Sager. Which would preferred melee weapons in combat? Well, um, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.280 if I'm just around the house, I guess it would 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.440 be to grab like a stick or something, so I 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:34.560 would be falling into like like pool fighting. Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.280 I'm a I'm a glave fan. Yeah, like glaves. I 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.400 don't own one. I probably should get on that. But 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:46.760 today's episode is about a very strange melee weapon, one 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:52.080 that humans don't wield yet. There's still time, but that 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:57.200 apparently crabs. You not only use tools, but use weapons, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:02.480 and they're alive. Yeah. The idea of crabs, specifically varieties 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.280 of that are known as boxing crabs or pom pom 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.600 crabs that not only the tool users, but they will 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:14.280 grab an enemy, particular types of s enemies, and wield 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.600 them as weapons, hold them like little cudgels, uh, you know, 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.040 showing them off, letting everybody know that they're armed to 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:24.200 the teeth, using them to hunt food, using them to 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:29.360 defend themselves like little bioweapons, stinging clubs, that are alive 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.520 that they have this mutualistic relationship with It's pretty clever. Yeah. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.759 I posted a chart from one of those studies we're 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.200 gonna talk about today to our Facebook and Twitter feeds 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.000 and asked people said, hey, this is a hint as 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:43.960 to what we're studying, and most people said they thought 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.840 it was crab cheerleading, which is about right since they're 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.880 called the pompomp Crab. Well, they are making a show 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.840 of things here, and they they do look like pom 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.120 bombs too many people. But I think the I think 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.960 nun chucks would be a more appropriate uh scenario if 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.120 your nun chuck was a says and it could bite people. Yeah, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.480 like really. To get into um parallels to this, we 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.320 really have to look to science fiction and fantasy, where 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:14.399 I think we see some some wonderful examples of one 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.359 fictional species using another fictional species are using some sort 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.960 of living weapon, uh to defend themselves or to attack 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.400 their adversaries. So one example that comes to my mind 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.280 are the Tyrannids of the Warhammer forty thousand universe. I'm 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.720 unfamiliar with us. Well, if you're familiar with with aliens 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.920 or basically any property that has a a biological hive 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.720 mind species. Then you basically have the gist of the Tanage, 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.239 so they come from another galaxy. They're all flesh, their 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.400 spaceships are flesh, and they also they also have all 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.560 these various forms, different morphological variants of the tyrannids depending 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.360 on you know, basically every level of an infantry army 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.400 that you would have in your tabletop game. But they 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.640 utilize a number of what are called weapon biomorphs to 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.840 gun down their adversaries. So these are living weapons, living 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.399 things that include bioplasma canons. Uh. And another example would 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.440 be the Impaler canon. It fires bony spines that are 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.560 as long as a man doesn't Halo have something like that, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.440 the Needler Probabler. Maybe the Needler isn't alive though, Like 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.160 I feel like there's some version of this in most 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.680 science fiction properties, like the Necromorphs and Dead Space. You're 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.680 kind of similar. You have, of course, the creatures in 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:38.840 um in the novel and subsequent film Starship Troopers. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.240 that makes sense. Again, Aliens, anytime there is like an 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.400 all flesh adversary, you encounter this type of thing, and 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.640 sometimes they have spaceships and weapons the one that comes 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.400 to mind for me. And I'm not a big expert 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.880 on this. Our our colleague Holly Fry might destroy me 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.960 if I pronounced this wrong. But those in the expanded 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.240 noncnon called Star Wars universe, there's this species called I 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.320 think it's the Yusen Vong. I've only read it. Um. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.480 And they utilize biotechnology for everything, including their weapons and 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.400 armor and ships, so all their stuff is alive. They 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.160 actually have like total disdain for any kind of mechanical technology. Yeah, 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.000 and these guys. Had remember seeing lots of art depicting 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.960 these guys, and they they're kind of like white skinned, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.320 cling on type creatures thinks. So yeah, and they wore 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.840 like like chitten for armor, and their weapons were like 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.560 similar to the race you were just describing, like sort 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.120 of bioplasma and stuff. Like. They're really cool looking. I 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.719 always love the idea of them. Yeah. Um, and you've 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.640 got here labyrinth. I forgot about this. So there's a 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.040 wonderful moment in Jim Hinson's Labyrinth where you have some 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.960 of the goblins that are tormenting Ludo and if you remember, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.640 they're running around, they had these these long poles, these 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.440 long sticks, and on the end they have these biting creatures. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.880 They look kind of like an embryonic chicken, like they 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.839 look kind of blind, and they have enormous teeth in 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.760 their little mouth, and they just go and they'll take 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.080 the stick with the biter on it and hold it 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.760 up to Ludo so that they could bite him. And 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.239 this really reminds me a lot of the crabs scenario 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.279 we're talking about here, where one little creature is using 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.719 another little creature as a as a as a cudgel, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.320 as a as a as a melee weapon against another being. 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.240 Every time Labyrinth comes up or I rewatch it, I 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.560 just I always think to myself, like, no, like you 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:35.279 would want to stay there and hang out with the 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.400 goblins and David Bowie, Like that is way more fun 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.279 than running away. I don't know why. I don't know, 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.240 Like if I was the baby, I would want to say, 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.279 if I was what's her face, Sarah? The name of 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.000 the character? What region of the labyrinth would you like 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.040 to put down roots in? Oh? Just the dance party one, 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.000 the dance Magic dance one, of course. Um. But this 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.320 also reminded me of two comic books which I brought 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.960 in and I let you borrow um. James Stoko does 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.960 a book called orc Stain, and Brandon Graham used to 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:08.960 do a book called King's City. And these guys are 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.520 buddies actually, so it makes sense that both their sort 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.840 of fantasy worlds will it involve using animals as weapons. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.120 In King's City, cats are used as weapons, and I 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.800 think they're like called cat masters or something like that. 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.360 And if you're if you're trained in such a way 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.719 you have a cat that's like you're familiar and you 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.039 can use it as a weapon. You can and it 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.440 and it works together with you. So these people like 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.560 use them as melee weapons or they throw them up 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.760 in the air and the cat like throws shrunkin's or 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.000 something or sharkns sorry uh. And what's the other things? 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.240 Like sometimes the cat can like bend its tail to 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.920 pick locks and stuff like that. So so there's that, 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.560 But in orc Stain, it's very much like what we're 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.760 gonna talk about today, where they have actual living but 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.040 more like kind of anemony type things that function as weapons, 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.120 like their axes have like eyes and mouths or or um. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.640 Like there's a pacific creature that's called the zazoo. That 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.719 they one person wears as like a cloak and it 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.480 has eyeballs and like you can just take zazoo often 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.360 throw it at people and it'll attack them. I glanced 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.000 at this book and I think I'll probably give it 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.240 a read. It has a very visceral art style like it. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.160 It looks like it's just like NonStop blood and perhaps 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:26.880 like work. Scrotums. Work, scrotum and genitalia are very important 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:31.520 to orc Stain. In fact, their entire economy revolves around 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:38.640 dried and cut up orc reproductive organ Yes, yeah, it's fascinating. 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.520 Uh they're called chits, but it also last one. Do 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.920 you remember Cronenberg's Existence? Did you ever watch that movie? 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.360 There's that scene where Jude Laws like eating soup and 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.600 he just keeps pulling organic pieces out of the soup 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.040 and like gnawing on them a little bit and then 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.800 like putting them all together until he has a gun 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.000 that's made out of the organic like I don't know 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.200 what it's supposed to be, like an amphibian or a 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.160 fish or something. And then for bullets, he yanks his 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.440 teeth out of his mouth and he slopped those into 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.440 this gun thing. I forgot about that part of it. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.280 so that's that. Those are just a few of our 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.840 examples of what's going on with the boxer crab. All Right, 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.840 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.600 we will get into the boxer crab, this fabulous real 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.240 world organism that employs some of these, uh, some of 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:38.000 these ideas about how to weaponize your fellow creature. All right, 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.600 so we're back, and yeah, you have this genus of 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.360 small crabs known as Libya l y b I A. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.520 And this is in the family Zanti Day. So again 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.800 you might know them as boxer crabs, boxing crabs, pom 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.680 pom crabs. They these are small little guys. They tend 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.720 to be barely two centimeters wide, and there there are 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.600 several different varieties of them, some of which are very 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.720 popular in aquarium So some of you listening out there 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.440 right now might be in a room with a boxer crab. 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.640 And yes, we do want to hear your take on 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.560 everything involved here and for the purposes of the research 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.360 that we're looking at today. I'm pretty sure most of 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:22.120 these specific specimens were drawn somewhere near Israel, right Yeah, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.160 in particularly that the ones that we looked at in 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.840 these studies were from the south shore of the Red 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:32.480 Sea in Elt, so there are a few different varieties. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.559 This is the one that we're gonna be talking about 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.559 more today. And this one in particular is interesting because 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.120 from the pictures I looked at it, it has a 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.040 skin that looks like tempura, or the texture of on 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.480 the shell looks like tempura. So they look delicious. They 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.960 already look like they've been fried. They've been battered and 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.800 fried for you're eating pledge before you even get to them. 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.120 They look like they're and there's they're small, but they 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:59.600 have these little sea an enemies. Now, the big question 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.520 and when the we're gonna talk about, especially in the 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.760 second study, is where do they get them? Where do 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.160 they come from? How does the crab go about obtaining 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.760 little sea an enemies to run around with and use 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.360 as weapons, to use as a means to to feed. Um, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.000 we'll get into that. It's it's important to to drive 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.640 home here for everyone that sea an enemies are predatory 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:23.880 animals of the order acting area. So they may look 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:28.240 like weirdly animated flowers. The name even alludes to terrestrial flowers, 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.800 but they are not plants. They are predatory animals. So 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.200 you have a predator utilizing predators as tools. And I 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.080 think they're sometimes referred to as bonds eyes, right, because 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.640 the idea is that the crabs cultivate them the same 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.439 way people cultivate bond's eye trees. Now, I do want 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.000 to note too, that the boxer crab isn't the only 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.320 crab to have a mutualistic relationship with sea enemies. Certain 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.840 larger hermit crabs tend to have one or two on 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.319 their shell which benefit from the crabs table scraps of 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.679 the crabs tearing apart some sort of organism that it's 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.400 found and that's eating them. Some of that drifts back 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.520 and this snemies get to feast, and then then enemies 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.560 serve as protection for the crab. So this, this hermit 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.360 crab would be kind of like one of these World 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:13.680 War One tanks. We have a couple of cannons on 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.000 the side. The enemies are its cannons. They're providing support 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:21.360 and both organisms benefit from this relationship. But yes, you 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.000 mentioned the bonds Ie tree. Yeah, so this is uh, 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.560 this is studied in particular by these these these two 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.959 bar Alon University graduate students in Israel, there's j Israel 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:38.720 Schneitzer and Yon iv Demon and uh. They have conducted 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.160 at least two studies here that we're gonna look at 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:43.680 where they've looked at this at a particular variety of 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.079 boxing crab and tried to get down to exactly what 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.280 they're doing, how they're working. So they previously worked on 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.439 a two thousand thirteen study published in the journal Experimental 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.800 Marine Biology and Ecology, and here they revealed the boxer 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.960 crabs bonds I like treatment of the bond of they're bioweapons, 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:03.400 so they use them to catch food and defend themselves, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.959 but they also essentially starve the and its star of 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.680 the anemony or regulate their they're diet enough to keep 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.200 them a small size. Yeah, this alone is fascinating, but 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.560 it gets even weirder. Okay, So the study identifies that 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.920 boxer crabs they not only commit what's referred to as 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.560 klepto parasitism to steal food from these anemonies, but they 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.880 also regulate the anemone's size through this process. So if 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.200 you take the anemone away from the boxer crab and 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.520 it's allowed to grow, they have a totally different morphology 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.000 color and size. In fact, they grow up to two 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:44.199 hundred and fifty larger in size. They're actually larger than 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.679 the crabs at that point from which they're taken. So 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.640 these crabs are just like basically keeping these like poor 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.280 starved enemies, uh, but using them as weapons in a 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.880 sort of clever way. The free anemonies that were studied 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.120 assume eight times more food than their captive counterparts, So 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.800 I think it's safe to assume that the crabs are 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.720 scarfing most of that stuff down now. Klepto parasitism. This 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.240 happens in all different kinds of animals. We see it 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.880 in birds and fish, mammals, a wide range of invertebrates. 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.240 I mean, technically, this is what we're doing when we 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.720 take milk from cows, right Like it gets back to 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.680 our episode on butter. We're we're stealing the food source 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.880 from another animal. But in the animal kingdom, it's more 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:36.680 advantageous than foraging or predation, and so you find this 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.560 in some snails and some spiders. It's the practice that's 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.520 known to affect the growth of the hosts that they're 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.600 stealing from. The closest example that these researchers site in 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.520 their study. There's a type of snail called the trick 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.480 o Tropis cancelata that eats the food of a worm 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.680 host and they steal up to a hundred percent of 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.200 its food. So presumably these worms die from starve and 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.679 I guess. Uh. The other one is the orb weaving spider, 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:10.040 which is Nephelia plum apez and that steals fifty percent 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.520 of its food from another spider called the Argo Rhodes 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:19.600 antipodeanist spider. You know, there's also the human equivalent of 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.600 of stealing part of alliance kill that I believe is 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:28.920 still practiced among like you know, very one or two 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.080 tribes in Africa. But this having been that this would 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.520 have been like an older practice where if you wanted 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.520 to get the meat of a kill, while all you 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.440 have to do is have the the bravery and and 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.560 or desperation to run in after lions have made their kill, 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:45.680 cut away some of the meat and get out of 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.600 there before the lions can really regroup. That sounds a 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.320 bit like scavenging um, And so yeah, I wonder like 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:57.520 how close scavenging falls under kleptoparasitism. Well, when a vulture 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.760 eats like I don't know road kill. Well, yeah, I 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.200 think the thing is with all these different modes of 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.320 obtaining the sustenance, you do see that gray area of 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.720 one meets the other. When like where symbia meets parasite, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.560 you know, there's often that gray area like or or 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:15.720 for instance. So I think we've talked about this before 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.880 when you have certain birds that are feeding on on 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.760 ticks not an animal, Like, at what point then is 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.360 it not you're eating the tick that has the blood 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.080 of the animal, and in some cases you cross that 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.600 line and you're actually drinking the blood from the animal, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.760 so you're you're close proximity to this other mode of behavior. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.720 It's interesting, but we should make no mistake about these anemones. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.320 They're not parasites that are living off of the crabs. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:48.480 The crabs are using them symbiotically and they specifically do 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.880 it to release the toxin nemoto assists that are part 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.560 of the anemonies. They use these as a living deterrent 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.760 for predators as well as a tool for hating food. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.560 So we we often talk about like, oh, tool use 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.560 among animals, that's like a really significant thing, right, Like 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.240 we humans are one of the few that actually use tools. 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:13.760 But these crabs are using other living beings as tools. Uh. 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.040 When the anemony itself is presented with food, the crab 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.880 literally robs it from the enemite's mouth. Uh. And but 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.080 what does the enemity get out of all of this, Well, 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.640 it actually gets access to oxygen and it's transported around 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.800 to more food sources, so it is slightly beneficial. Yeah, 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.640 the crab is kind of a mobile platform for the anenemy. Subsequently, 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:40.720 the anemony has no resemblance to its free living form. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.200 That's the fascinating thing. Now the crabs claws. This is 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.880 crazy too. The crabs don't have what we think of 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:52.160 as normally functioning claws. They're totally ill suited for defense. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.560 So they're not like pincers, right, They've they've evolved so 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.320 that they're mainly used for holding these anemonies. And there's 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.240 no known instances of these crabs without a pair of 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:09.080 anemones in their claws in nature. We're gonna get to 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.479 it in a minute, what happens when you take them away. 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.480 As part of this study, the researchers used a control 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.960 group of starved anemonies to see how much nutrition the 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:24.840 anemonies themselves were deriving in turn from algae that's on 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:30.440 them that they're using symbiotically, possibly through photosynthesis. So think 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.720 of it this way, like the algae is getting energy 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.800 from photosynthesis, and then the anemone is taking energy away 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.480 from these algae, and then the crabs are holding on 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.520 the to the anemone and they're using them to gather 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.679 up bits of food nuts. It is also noted in 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.560 this first paper the crabs use the anemonies in what 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.840 they call a mopping action, uh. And this is how 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:56.920 they gather food. So they basically kind of swing them 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.440 around and mop up food in the sticky endrolls of 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.159 the anemones, and then they let them grasp it, and 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.080 then they bring the anemony up to their mouth and 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.479 they remove it themselves. The anemonies are also used as 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.360 a weapon, uh, and it's mainly to deflect attacks, so 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.800 hence crab boxing. Alright, we're gonna take another quick break, 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:19.600 and when we come back, we're gonna get into the 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.520 second study that was connected by this this pair of 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.399 Israeli researchers, and it's gonna it's gonna get into the 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:34.400 idea they're not only using weapons they're using clone weapons. 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.320 All right, so we're back. Uh. So that was the 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.440 first study. The latest study to come out from Schnitzer 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.040 and Gamon came out just this week. Yeah, and we 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.520 should say, as we're recording this, Robert has just published 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.199 an article on how Stuff Works about this very topic. 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.119 This podcast is our extension of that. So if you 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.320 want to read it, we can go find it there. 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.840 It will obviously be in our show notes. But also 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.760 we're going to embed the podcast in that article. Yeah, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.520 the article didn't allow us to do like fifteen minutes 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:13.320 of talk about tyrannids and so so Schnitzer in Gamon 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.680 had some some basic questions about this, and this new 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.359 study was published in the journal Pure j Uh looks 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.760 into specifically where do they get these sea an enemy 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.440 and and how do they what happens if they're missing one. 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.679 So this is what they did. They went back, they 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:35.040 went out to the Red Sea again, this area in Eliott, Israel, 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.120 and they identified the weaponized an enemies of this particular 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.960 variety of boxer crab as belonging to the genus Elysia. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.840 And this was likely a newly recorded species of an enemy. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.240 So bonus there. But when they looked around for wild 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:55.200 examples of Alicia's see an Enemy, nothing turned up. Now, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.680 I want to say that this is not a situation 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.920 with all varieties of boxer crabs. There are others spe 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.240 seas that have been shown to utilize an enemies that 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.320 also exist in a wild state. But since they in 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:10.280 this experiment, since they couldn't find any wild examples, it 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.560 did raise some interesting questions. Are there are there wild 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.359 and enemies anymore? Is it possible that and these are 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.200 the two sort of outside possibilities here that the researchers present. 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.880 One possibility being that these things are extinct in the wild, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.119 that these crabs have been passing them back and forth 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.320 so long that they are only available on crabs. Yeah, 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:38.800 they've basically just completely enslaved this race of anemones. Yeah. 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:41.119 And the other idea is that they do exist, they 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.720 exist far away and there was like a like a 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.439 grandfather crab that brought these things into the area. And 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.600 so in this area of the Red Sea, the an 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:55.920 enemy only exist in an enslaved state. Now this gets 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.480 down to the question, Well, you're saying, well, well, it's 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.120 not like they how they passed them back and forth 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.560 if you're a crab without a sea an enemy, how 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.960 do you even get one to begin with? Yeah, that 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.520 was my big question is like, how do newborn crabs 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.159 get their anemonies right? If there's if they're nowhere to 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.440 be found except for what these other crabs, how do 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.200 they get them? Well, I would ask you this counter question, 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.520 what does Bruce Lee do when he has no weapons 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:26.359 and a bunch of nun chuck armed individuals are attacking him? Well, 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.320 first he breaks a chair and he uses that chair 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.960 to beat them up, and then he takes their nunchuck exactly, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.000 And that's what happens here, they take the nun chucks. 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.679 So uh, Schnitzer and Gimon discovered in a pair of 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.320 experiments that if you have you have a one weapon 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:45.480 boxer crab. Okay, so this boxer crab only has the 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.080 one an enemy. What they'll do is they will split 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.040 it into two pieces, and these two remaining fragments will 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.640 then regenerate over a couple of days into two distinct clones. 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.240 And if they have no anenemies all, then they will 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.160 go and wrestle with another boxer crab and steal one 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:06.840 of theirs, and then each one is left with one, 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.959 and they do the splits, the splitting maneuver, and then 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.240 they each have too. So maybe it's like a rite 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.719 of passage. Uh, that's the article itself says. It's presumed 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.119 that they acquire them sometime after their larval stage. I 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:21.639 don't know if it's like, you know, like a a 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:27.440 daddy crab hands his child crab one of his anemonies 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.520 and then rips it in half. Right, I don't think 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.080 that's what happens. It sounds like once you pass the 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.760 larval stage, you gotta go find somebody to fight and 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.960 take one of their anemonies. It's interesting. This reminds me 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.600 of some studies that have looked into the economics of 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:45.800 hermit crabs and their shells. Just to remind everyone, hermit 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:48.399 ship crab, of course, lives in the shell of another creature. 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:50.919 But as a hermit crab grows, it has to abandon 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.959 ill fitting shells and and acquire new shells. And Uh. 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.960 Some researchers have done like really fascinating economic spins on 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.680 this that tie up nicely with with human economics, with 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.320 with particularly as it as it relates to home ownership. 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:12.320 And you see a similar thing with crabs abandoning, stealing shells. 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:15.960 This constant musical chairs. So I wonder if there's a 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.840 similar scenario going on here with this constant tussle among 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:22.480 the crabs for their weapons, and then of course they're 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:25.240 using these weapons to defend themselves into acquire food. Well, 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:30.720 this is specifically crazy because when the scientists analyze the 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:34.399