Spiders live in the sea? I was in a trance when I saw the picture below!
From the picture, we can see that these spider-like creatures are actually a kind of crab. Due to the error of translation, many people in the country call it: giant killer crab. Although the translation is wrong, its appearance does deserve the name "Killer Crab":
After seeing this photo, do you think it fits the name of "Giant Killer Crab"? I also had this feeling when I first saw it, so I seriously checked the information about it on the Internet, and today I will introduce it to you - Gan's giant claw crab!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > Gan's giant cray crab</h1>
The crab in the picture is called the Gan's giant crab and mainly lives at a depth of 150 meters near the Japanese island of Honshu. The largest crab known in the century, and the largest arthropod, it has a terrifying shape. One of the largest specimens of gan's giant crab was caught and stored in a museum in the Netherlands!
The length of the two large claws of this giant crab is 3.7 meters, which is comparable to that of some small cars, and the weight has reached about 27 kilograms, which is enough for three or four strong men to eat. However, it is only the largest, but the weight is not, and the Boston lobster in the Americas is the heaviest on record among arthropods, reaching about 40 pounds.
Giant crabs begin to multiply each spring when temperatures warm up, and they collectively emerge from the deep sea, as shown in the picture
Offshore reproduction that migrates to a depth of 50 meters:
After mating, the female crab will lay eggs on the abdominal node to hatch, and after about 10 days of incubation, the pups can break out of the shell and become tiny flea-like larvae, floating in the sea.
The larvae undergo several shelling in the next few months to get rid of the transformation of flea larvae to juvenile crabs, and the surviving juvenile crabs can return to the deep sea with the large army. Female crabs are able to expel 1.5 million eggs at a time, but few have successfully hatched and shelled to become juvenile crabs.
This is also no way to do it, arthropods shed their shells is very dangerous, take off the hard shell, it is easy to be attacked by predators, if injured during this period, there will be a risk of infection.
However, the risk is accompanied by profit, and after the Gan's giant crab becomes an adult, every time it takes off its shell, its legs will become one point longer and its cephalothorax will become larger. There are experimental records that after more than 100 minutes of shelling, a Gan's giant crab with a cephalothorax width of 12.8 cm has increased the width of the cephalothorax by about 15 cm, an increase of about 22%.
The cephalothorax will stop growing after reaching a certain width, and the growth after shelling will mainly become thighs. The older you are, the longer your legs, and your lifespan can reach more than 50 years old, so the elderly Gan's giant crab has large legs.
Looking at such a pair of long legs, even I was envious, and this "killer crab" that looked fierce was actually very gentle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > gentle Gan's giant crab</h1>
Although in appearance, the Gan's giant crab has a look that can "kill", even in some Japanese folklore, the Gan's giant crab will sneak up on divers and sailors who are unsuspecting underwater, drag them to drown in the sea, and eat them. And these passages are still circulating on the Internet.
But the truth is that the Gan's giant crab, like other crabs, is an omnivorous scavenger. Basically, they crawl on the seabed below 100 meters, feed on animal carcasses and plant debris in the sea, and eat some kelp when there is no food, and basically do not actively prey on other animals.
Because the hand is too long, the reaction nerve is also long, so the movement speed and predation speed are very slow. If you catch a fish, it is easy to have just stretched out its claws and the fish will run away.
Therefore, the Gan's giant crab generally survives by camouflage skills, and the young crabs will use the claws to attach algae, sponges and other things to their bodies, dressed like their surroundings, in order to escape predators.
However, these disguises are futile in front of humans, and the Japanese Giant Crab is very popular, so there is overfishing and the population is decreasing. They also found the problem and started trying a remedy. For example, fishing is prohibited during the breeding season, and larvae are artificially bred.
However, these are only measures to make up for the loss of the sheep, and what really needs to be changed is their consumption concept!