Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 26, 2012

How 'Smashing' & 'Spearing' Shrimp Speedily Attack Prey

Spearing mantis shrimp hide in their burrows and wait for an unsuspecting creature to come along. Then, in the blink of an eye, they spear it with their long claws, like an underwater archer. How do they spear their prey so quickly? Maya deVries, a researcher at the University of...

Jan 16, 2013

Barnacles' Sneaky Penises Send Sperm on Sea Journey

For barnacles, which are stuck in one place, sex can be tricky. The shelled sea creatures have been known to use extra-long penises to fertilize their nearest neighbors. Now researchers have discovered that when those neighbors are too far away, barnacles will broadcast their sperm and wind up with long-distance...

Jan 16, 2013

Crabs Really Do Feel Pain: Study

Scientists have long held that crabs are unable to feel pain because they lack the biology to do so, but behavioral evidence has recently shown otherwise. Now, new research further supports the hypothesis that crabs feel pain by showing that crabs given a mild shock will take steps to avoid...

Apr 4, 2013

Invasive Crabs Help Restore Marsh

You may not be able to fight fire with fire, but fighting crabs with crabs may have some merit. Researchers studying the imperiled marshes of Cape Cod were recently surprised to discover that a section of the marsh was coming back, sprouting a veneer of cordgrass, according to a news...

Apr 8, 2013

Spooky Crabs Darken Camouflage From Day to Night

Some teenagers like to stand out with wild hairstyles and flashy clothes, but young horned ghost crabs prefer to blend into the background. Juvenile crabs mimic daily changes in their environment, shifting their coloring from day to night, new research suggests. When the sun's bright at noon, the crab's light...

Apr 8, 2013

Supersized Crabs Bad News for Seafood Lovers

The giant crabs are coming. And they're hungry. Researchers at the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Aquarium Research Center have found that higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas that's linked to global warming — are also causing crabs to grow to bigger, faster and stronger, according...

Apr 8, 2013

Hermit Crab Species Found Alive for First Time

A recent submarine dive turned up a species of hermit crab that was previously only known through dead, dried specimens procured more than a century ago. The sub collected a few of the animals, known as Pylopagurus discoidalis, from the Caribbean and brought them back to an aquarium, where they...

May 30, 2013

Animal Sex: How Crabs Do It

Crabs can be found in all of the world's oceans and throughout the fresh water systems on land. Despite the crustaceans' apparent success, you'd think their odd body shape and rigid shells would make mating physically difficult. So just how do crabs do it? In order to grow and increase...

Jun 13, 2013

Tiny, Transparent Lobsters Stick Close to Home

These teeny-tiny infant lobsters may be small, but their commercial value is anything but. Spiny-lobster (Panulirus argus) hauls in the Caribbean bring in $1 billion a year, which is why researchers are taking a closer look at these lobster babies. A new computer simulation, published June 7 in the journal...

Jun 18, 2013

How the Hairy-Chested 'Hoff' Crab Evolved

Yeti crabs don't comb their hair to look good — they do it because they're hungry. These bizarre deep-sea animals grow their food in their own hair, trapping bacteria and letting it flourish there before combing it out and slurping it up. The crabs are found near cold seeps and...

Aug 9, 2013

Methane Meal: Deep-Sea Crab Gets an Icy Surprise

In the ocean's inky depths, crabs scavenge for meals by tracking vibrations from sound and movement. For one crab, that meant a stream of icy methane bubbles seemed like a potential meal — until the methane froze onto its claws and mouth. Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute...

Oct 23, 2013

Discovered: Plastic-Eating Barnacles

The oceans are full of plastic. Now, research finds that even barnacles are feeling the consequences. A third of barnacles caught in the North Pacific gyre, a region of the ocean notoriously littered with scraps of plastic, have microfragments of the plastic material in their digestive systems at a given...

Nov 13, 2013

Crazy Cretaceous Find: Intersex Crabs

DENVER — It's a crustacean conundrum: Why did some Cretaceous crabs sport both male and female characteristics? The answer is unknown, but new fossil discoveries reveal that intersex crabs were a small but persistent part of the population in South Dakota during the Cretaceous Period — and a parasitic barnacle...

Nov 19, 2013

New Cave-Dwelling 'Shrimp' Discovered in California

A translucent underwater cave dweller that looks like a skeleton and travels like an inchworm is the newest member of California's array of marine life. Scientists found a new species of skeleton shrimp — a group of tiny crustaceans that are actually caprellid amphipods, not shrimp — in vials collected...

Jan 23, 2014

In Photos: Mantis Shrimp Show Off Googly Eyes

Crazy Eyes (Image credit: Image courtesy of Roy L. Caldwel)The peacock mantis shrimp, like this juvenile Odontodactylus scyllarus, are smashing superheroes. The colorful crustaceans have a hammerlike claw that can smash prey with the acceleration of a 0.22-caliber bullet — not unlike Thor's mythological weapon. Turns out, they also have...