Posted on Friday, 12th February 2010 by Interloper
In prehistoric times the Earth’s atmosphere is believed to have been much richer in oxygen than it is today, allowing exoskeletal creatures (including insects, spiders and crustaceans) to grow much larger than their modern-day counterparts. This information hasn’t stopped some creatures, namely the coconut crab, from growing larger than I consider reasonable for any creature that wears its skeleton on the outside.
The coconut crab (or Birgus latro if you’re in Ancient Rome) is believed to be about as big as an arthropod can possibly be in Earth’s current atmosphere. The crabs can be found along many Indo-Pacific coastlines, terrorising villagers (or maybe just me) with their pincers.
At night, while sensible humans have sealed themselves away and performed the appropriate warding rites, the coconut crabs emerge. Each member of the species possesses ten legs, the front pair consisting of claws with which they can lift objects weighing up to 30 kg (or 64 lbs, for those of you who aren’t down with the metric system). These claws are powerful enough to puncture the hard shell of coconuts, as well as—assumedly—human skulls.
The next four legs are strong enough that the species uses them to climb vertically up objects such as up the trunks of coconut palms—not to mention all the way up your body in order to eat your face off.
Coconut crabs are capable of living for as many as 30 years and are considered by the inhabitants of some islands to contain the spirits of Taotao Mona, “ancient people” that haunt the land.
Posted in Panic, Trivia | Comments (0)
