Man-made shells cast a new light on the lives of hermit crabs

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Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00a.m.

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Scientists at the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre and Aquarium at Portobello near Dunedin are looking at hermit crabs in a whole new light.

Scientists at the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre and Aquarium at Portobello near Dunedin are looking at hermit crabs in a whole new light.

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3/03/2012 5:36:26 a.m.

CMW wrote:

Only thing is...the glass doesn't provide the calcium that the natural shell doess, which the crabs need to maintain the hardness of their exoskeleton.

20/11/2009 8:01:41 a.m.

mrkrabs wrote:

the shell looks way too big for that crab

16/09/2009 11:19:03 p.m.

Maria wrote:

I just would like to know where i can buy glass shells for my crabs? They look really cool!

18/08/2009 7:38:12 p.m.

Stephen Bolter wrote:

Go John You keep you eyes on the sights of those politicians wanting to sell off AKL's assets. I thought John Banks and Rodney Hide certianly knew more than they were prepared to say and it's this behaviour that leads us to not trust them.. AKL is fabolus and we don't want those wallies wreaking our asset Stephen

18/08/2009 3:47:26 p.m.

Jean McKinnon wrote:

No we don't consider it a success if the animal tries on the shell then switches out of it! It's a success if the animal stays in the glass shell even when others are presented to it! BTW all the animals at our aquarium are returned to the wild unless they have been brought to us injured and it is deemed that they can't survuve any more in the wild then they have a home for life

17/08/2009 7:33:25 a.m.

hermit addict wrote:

some people....*sigh* hermit crabs live in shells because 1 they have soft abdomens and 2 without a shell they a vulnerable. a shell is also a place to hide.

ok i think whoever wrote this needs to get that because they made these shells doesnt mean the hermit crabs will be wonderfully happy for the rest of their lives...wanna know what would make them happy...?stop taking them from the wild...hermit crabs cant be bred in captivity...

and also the shells didn't bring a whole new world to the crabs...different species enjoy different types of shells...and i bet those people count it when a crab tries it on but switches out as a success...

15/08/2009 4:18:17 p.m.

mr. nawtnuff wrote:

In all honesty, it's not my interest to see the person who created these cool shells, but rather more about how they go about blowing the glass shells! Now that would be fascinating!!

15/08/2009 10:18:59 a.m.

Jean McKinnon wrote:

Colin, isn't the question of which came first, soft body or shell living a bit like chicken and the egg, after all modern crays have a tough exoskeleton over their abdomen and certainly couldn't twist it into a shell, so one could assume that the ancestral form also has a segmented exoskeleton........perhaps one had a hardening issue after the moult and then could use the shell, thus propagating a genetic mutation which would normally lead to death...............?

14/08/2009 7:32:18 p.m.

suchire wrote:

These crabs definitely shouldn't throw rocks.

14/08/2009 4:47:18 p.m.

Colin McLay wrote:

Hermits do not live in shells because they've a soft abdomen. They evolved from an ancestor with a crayfish-like abdomen and the soft abdomen is part of the adaptation to life in a restricted spiral space. If they didn't have a soft abdomen they wouldn't be able to fit into the shell!! Evolution results from adaptation to new environments and ways of life.