FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGY Dale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.
The following picture of the presumably-extinct Australian megafauna was posted this morning on Facebook because of Australia Day. Most of the creatures shown on it have been nominated as survivals corresponding to recent Cryptid categories.
Some funny fellow added this photo on a Facebook page and said it was a typical Australian spider. This elicited several responses, one of which immediately noticed that it was a photoshopped job and that the grains under the human hand were smaller than the ones under the spider. OK that is acceptable. Then there were two other lines with multiple comments each, one saying "No that's actually a South American bird-eating spider"and then again "Yes that is an Australian bird-eating spider and some are bigger than that"
Some selected comments follow (there were over a thousand responses in all):
Jean Maree Brook: We had one in our house just slightly smaller then this one,big sac like that,Elijah,(my daughter),looked down and it was right next to her foot,then the next night it was in the loungeroom.And were in inner sydney,go figure..They seen to be getting bigger
Lana Stanbury: We have large one large one over here "the Avondale" spider comes bigger than a dinner plate had one in our house at St Mary's Bay. Very furry they are and harmless
Bente Buhr Bethnas: Eastern tarantula is the biggest birdeating spider in australia and can grow bigger than a mans hand so i dont think its fake .. ive seen another big spider at he home of one of my daughters friends and it was a blondie ... also called goliath .. it was still a teenanger and was bigger than my hand and he told us it would be around the size of a dinnerplate .. yak ..
Micah E Giantology This is not average size for any spider on earth today. There have been some 1/4 pound record spiders from the Amazon, with 11 inch leg spans, and a 12 to 13 inch span spider this size could very well exist, but this spider in this photo is a prop, or digitally enhanced.
[...So we can very well mark down that the photo is a fake...but at the same time there are witnesses that are willing to swear that spiders can be a foot across or bigger (like the one in the photo) in both Astralia and in South America. This is confirmation of older rumours we had heard before, and they might not be true, but its possibly valuable to know that the rumours persist.-DD]
Here's something you don't see everyday - a giant surfing crocodile!
The 4-metre croc forced the closure of Broome's Cable Beach on Saturday while he enjoyed surfing and paddling around.
[This is an Indopacific or Saltie croc [Crocodylus porosus] and not an especially large one, about 13 to 15 feet long. I include the article here because the crocodile has an unconfirmed even larger relative that is even more at home at the sea, and the appearance would be much the same only scaled up-DD]
Earlier Story: http://www.1047.com.au/scoopla/trending-now/blog/2013/9/nudists-run-for-their-life-from-crocodiles/
Posted: 13 September, 2013 by Rosie
Nudists Run For Their Life From Crocodiles
Dangers of Broome beachlife!
If you're a nude sunbather - I think you're already taking enough risks we reckon. Not so, for thenudists of Northern West Australia who decided to go sunbathing tackle-out in an area where crocodiles are known to hang out.
The incident happened around 2:00pm on Monday on Cable Beach in Broome, when a crocodile was spotted by life guards and a swimmer. An alert went out about the three to four metre crocodile - and panic ensured.
"There was approximately 20 people in the water and 60 cars on the beach so we've just put signs on, made sure that everyone's aware that the beach was closed." said Lifeguard Supervisor Chase Lurati.
"North of the rocks is the community beach which people go to naked. They all understand, they're all quite regular here."
What would you do if you were nude sunbathing and a crocodile appeared? Sprint off the beach without your clothes? Stay to get them and risk it? So many questions!
The owner of the Lake Monsters Facebook page went ahead and made up this lovely piece of artwork depicting a typical Lake monster (saying it could be Loch Ness or Lake Champlain, or anywhere where the Longnecked creatures venture inland) and using my composite published on this page recently. While this was unauthorised use of my image I was very glad to see it and I thanked him for making it up.
Scott Mardis had told me that some theorists at Lake Champlain think the creature could be a large turtle: Both Scott Mardis an I feel that an actual plesiosaur would be more likely than a giant turtle that looks so much like a plesiosaur otherwise.
Recently I mentioned Tim Dinsdale's reconstruction for the Loch Ness Monsteras coming out statistically close to mine, and so here is a news photo of a young Tim Dinsdale showing off his composite model, and below, the Australian version, which is nearly identical once again(allowing for 2 or 3 humps equally)
Scott Mardis sent some materials about the Australian Aboriginal Yarru, which he thought seemed to have small rounded rocks inside like the Plesiosaur's gatroliths
Driver, Rebecca. 1999. Australia’s Aborigines ... did they see dinosaurs? Creation Ex Nihilo 21(1):24–27.
Dennis Fields, a former missionary to Far North Queensland’s Kuku Yalanji tribespeople, told the CMIministry in Australia some years ago of a story the elders of the tribe told him, of a creature called Yarru (or Yarrba). The tribe inhabits the rainforest regions, where there are a number of waterholes in which, in earlier days, Yarru was said to live. There is a story of how the Yarru devoured a young maiden. The missionary asked one of the tribe’s artists to paint the story for him. The tribal artist, with very little formal education, had no knowledge of what so-called prehistoric animals looked like, and was drawing only from the descriptions handed down in the ancient stories. The painting (later donated to Creation International Ministries, and shown at the right [below]) shows a creature with a remarkable resemblance to the extinct Plesiosaurus.
Yarru or Yarrba (Plesiosaur) Painting
European sightings of water monsters also often match this description.[11] Most evolutionists, however, find this unacceptable, since they insist such creatures vanished with the dinosaurs over 65 million years ago. For centuries, the Dharuk people have spoken of the mighty ‘Mirreeulla,’ whose home is the Hawkesbury River near Sydney. Sightings of plesiosaur-like creatures in this river have continued to modern times, with some estimating the creature at up to 15 metres (50 feet) long.
[11. Nessie’s kin? Creation 18(4):18, September 1996]
Scott also showed this diagram of an Elasmosaur to show where the gastroliths were located
And below a "Cadborosaurus" report with a 3-humped Plesiosaur-shaped creature giving some indication about the "Mane" (which is a point of contention in such reports).
This is actually another "Sea Giraffe" with a fairly short mane, described as being like a "fin" (fleshy material) and with a length of a few inches (3-6 inches irregularly, it looks like from the witness' drawings)
Tara Taylor I'll need a bigger tank... Er, maybe a saddle. So awesome
Wm. Michael Mott Awesome until it eats your family.
Shawn Page It seems like the cattle herds would be a tempting food source for them, and there would be more evidence if that were the case, but then again there should be better evidence for bigfoot as well.
Mark Priddis I live in central western NSW Australia and there have been a lot of reports of giant lizards and I personally know people who have seen them, one in particular is close friend of mine.
Wm. Michael Mott How many unexplained disappearances of people in the bush do you know about?
Shawn Page It seems like bigger crocodiles are being found all the time. So a type of huge lizard is not that hard to believe
Matthieu Munoz Yes, Burrunjor sightings could actually misidentified Megalania. I wonder if this explains Bunyip sightings too.
Mark Priddis well I think all disappearances are unexplained until they they find a body or the person is alive.....How many hikers go bushwalking without notifying anybody is also another point to think about.
Mark Priddis I live on the western edge of the Blue Mountains which covers over 10,000 square kilometers of rugged inaccessible bush and it is only a few hours away from Sydney. Apart from giant lizard sightings we have alot of sightings of what has become known as the "the Lithgow Panther" around here....A large Black Feline.\\
Rowson Zhen largest crocodile ever recorded is believed to be krys the savannah king. The animal was over 28 feet long and weighed 4,000 lbs. Varanus priscus' size estimations on the upper scale are thought to be 23 feet long and 4,500 lbs. I can see how both animals can be mistaken as the bunyip, burrunjor, etc.
Jaime Febus Megalania
[The picture is indeed an illustration of "Megalania" standing on its hind legs-DD}
Corey Kessinger i hope it's megalania
Gilbert Cauduro this is the size of those seen in New Guinea (film casing investigators to boats in documenteries not presently on internet)
Matthieu Munoz Makes me wonder why no serious expedition has searched for these yet.
Dale Drinnon Too large an area to cover. They could be practically anywhere in Australia
Corey Kessinger like with bigfoot in America
Matthieu Munoz Well, someone here mentioned 'the western edge of the blue mountains' as having a lot of unexplored area. Might be a good place to start there. Also Burrunjor sightings are mainly in Arnhem land of Australia so maybe there are some Megalania there?
Dale Drinnon ...And between those two locations you have the greater part of Australia included
Magnetic Island is abuzz after a strange, monster-like object suddenly appeared out of waters off Picnic Bay on the weekend.
The spectacle had visitors and locals scratching their heads, with theories ranging from large birds to sunken boats.
Magnetic Island resident David “Crusty” Herron, who took this photo, said he was glad to capture the animal or object on film, and had started calling it Lost Nessie.
“I looked out and saw this thing in the water and thought,.. it’s a Loch Ness monster’,” he said.
“There was this feeling of excitement on the beach, and all these people were pointing and talking about what it could be.
“Someone said it looked like the Loch Ness monster, and said maybe Scotland had been too cold lately so it decided to come and visit Maggie.”
The most likely explanation is that the low tide revealed part of a sunken boat, with reports a dragon boat went down off the island one week ago during a race.
Regardless, Mr Herron said that the sighting could be an asset to tourism, and attract more visitors to the island.
Anyone with explanations are being urged to come forward.
[We have run reports on Dragon boats before: That is NOT what a Dragon boat looks like!!]
Dale, Greetings from Magnetic island,
Dale please find attached my original photograph 'Loch Ness Nessie on Magnetic Island', attached, taken on Friday 25th October off Picnic Bay Beach on Magnetic Island.
Regrettably the camera was a $49 Samasung ES80 with an incorrect setting.
I give you permission to use the image with the Attribution: Is this a Loch Ness Monster, Magnetic Island, Queensland. David Crusty Herron.
On Oct 25, beachgoers at Magnetic Island, off Townsville, claimed that they saw "a distinctive long, curved neck bobbing up and down off the coast," AAP reports.
The beachgoers were quick to associate the image they saw to the mythical creature Loch Ness monster or most popularly called Nessie
Locals of the Magnetic Island were now desperate to find answer or a name to the image that they saw.
"It was bobbing up and down in the water and at first I thought, what's that? Someone yelled out 'it looks like a Loch Ness monster. I've never seen anything like it - it could be anything. We are all wanting to know what it is," David Herron, a marriage celebrant told AAP.
Mr Herron was able to photograph the "monster" from a 200 metres distance.
However, marine biologists who have seen the photograph taken by Mr Herron said that the object bobbing up and down off the coast could be a piece of a tree or boat.
Glen Chilton, James Cook University biology professor, echoed what the marine biologists said.
"It's probably a piece of a tree or piece of a boat which has somehow broken away," he told AAP.
But Australian cryptozoologist and self-proclaimed "yowie man" Rex Gilroy took the locals' side saying that "it's hard to say from the photo" whether the image seen was just that of a piece of tree or a part of a boat.
Mr Gilroy said that he had known 800 sightings of creatures resembling the Loch Ness monster. Some of these sightings were from the Magnetic Island and Townsville area. In fact, in Oct 2012, a local fisherman saw a grey coloured creature emerging from waters off the Magnetic Island.
The mystery about the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, had been being told over and again for 80 years now.
The story started as far back on Apr 14, 1933, when a couple - John Mackay and his wife - saw something strange as they drove past the Loch Ness Lake in Scottish Highlands. According to accounts, the couple described what they saw as something resembling a whale.
The story of Mr and Mrs Mackay had since then gave birth to more sightings of the Loch Ness monster.
To date, there is still no concrete evidence to support the sightings.
Scientists even consider the mystery of the Loch Ness monster as a myth and hoax to drive tourism to the lake.
[Related Reference:
The descriptions bring to mind the classic Longneck's arching-over fishing posture. The logo for the Champ Search echoes that shape and so also does a recent photograph said to be Champ showing his neck in a similar posture, This photo is also hotly disputed, however--DD]
Sydney (AFP) - An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world".
Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found.
It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink -- a type of lizard -- and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.
"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime -- I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.
"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well."
The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago.
While surveys had previously been conducted in the boulder-fields around the base of Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top, identified by satellite imagery, had remained largely unexplored, fortressed by massive boulder walls.
Within days of arriving, the team had discovered the three new species as well as a host of other interesting finds that Hoskins said may also be new to science.
The highlight was the leaf-tailed gecko, a "primitive-looking" 20 centimetre-long (7.9 inches) creature that is an ancient relic from a time when rainforest was more widespread in Australia.
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives and has been named Saltuarius eximius, Hoskin said, with the findings detailed in the latest edition of the international journal Zootaxa.
"The second I saw the gecko I knew it was a new species. Everything about it was obviously distinct," he said.
Highly camouflaged, the geckos sit motionless, head-down, waiting to ambush passing insects and spiders.
The Cape Melville Shade Skink is also restricted to moist rocky rainforest on the plateau, and is highly distinct from its relatives, which are found in rainforests to the south.
Also discovered was a small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist, allowing female frogs to lay their eggs in wet cracks in the rocks.
In the absence of water, the tadpole develops within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out.
Once the summer wet season begins the frogs emerge on the surface of the rocks to feed and breed in the rain.
Tim Laman, a National Geographic photographer and Harvard University researcher who joined Hoskin on the expedition, said he was stunned to know such undiscovered places remained.
"What's really exciting about this expedition is that in a place like Australia, which people think is fairly well explored, there are still places like Cape Melville where there are all these species to discover," he said.
"There's still a big world out there to explore."
According to National Geographic, the team plans to return to Cape Melville within months to search for more new species, including snails, spiders, and perhaps even small mammals.
"All the animals from Cape Melville are incredible just for their ability to persist for millions of years in the same area and not go extinct. It's just mind-blowing," Hoskin said.
The crustaceans are found in underwater caves of the Caribbean, Canary Islands and Australia. (Supplied)
The first world's first known venomous crustacean has been found in waters off Western Australia.
The blind "remipede" poisons its prey with a similar kind of venom to that found in rattlesnakes, the BBCreports.
The venom contains a complex cocktail of poisons, including a paralysing agent, which breaks down a prey's body tissue, allowing the remipede to suck out a kind of liquid meal from its victim's exoskeleton.
The deadly crustacean can also be found in underwater caves of the Caribbean and Canary Islands and usually spends its time feeding on other small animals.
Dr Bjoern von Reumont from the Natural History Museum in London detailed the discovery in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
"This is the first time we have seen venom being used in crustaceans and the study adds a new major animal group to the roster of known venomous animals," he wrote.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified the remipede as a crab. While both species are crustaceans, their features are quite different. A remipede looks more like an underwater centipede, with head and an elongate trunk of up to forty-two similar body segments. Source: BBC,Natural History Museum Author: Natasha Lee, Approving editor: Nick Pearson
[The ones in the Canary Islands and Caribbean suggest a Transatlantic landbridge link in earlier times. The friend that sent this into me suggested a Sundaland connection for the Australian kind-DD]
Two Australian biologists have described a new species of leaf-tailed gecko in the genus Saltuarius.
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko with regenerated tail. Image credit: Conrad Hoskin.
Leaf-tailed geckos are large, impressive lizards that are highly camouflaged against rocks and tree trunks. Most species are rainforest dependent but some occur in drier habitats in association with rock. These geckos are restricted to eastern Australia, with species having highly localized distributions, including some found on a single mountain or range.
The six previously known species of the genus Saltuarius are distributed in rock outcrops and rainforests along the ranges from northern New South Wales to the Wet Tropics region of north-east Queensland.
The newly discovered species, scientifically named Saltuarius eximius, is known only from the vicinity of the type locality in the uplands of the Melville Range, Cape Melville.
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, Saltuarius eximius, in life. Image credit: Conrad Hoskin.
“The discovery of Saltuarius eximius brings the number of Saltuarius to seven, and extends the distribution of the genus 180 km north from the northern end of the range of Saltuarius cornutus in the Cooktown region to Cape Melville,” wrote Dr Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University in Townsville and Dr Patrick Couper from Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia, authors of the paper published in the journal Zootaxa (full paper in .pdf).
“Six individuals have been found, all in close proximity in an area of granite boulders covered by a rainforest canopy.”
The proposed common name of the species is the Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko. The specific name eximius means exceptional, extraordinary, exquisite, in Latin.
The new gecko, measuring about 12 cm and weighing around 20 g, has short head and very large eyes.
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, Saltuarius eximius, in life. Image credit: Conrad Hoskin.
“When first sighted the geckos were motionless and positioned head-down, with the anterior half of their body raised well off the surface and their head held parallel with the surface. In this foraging pose, Saltuarius eximius is no doubt primarily a sit-and-wait predator like other leaftail geckos. Several of the geckos made an extended squeaking sound when first captured,” Dr Hoskin and Dr Couper wrote. ______ Bibliographic information: Conrad J. Hoskin & Patrick Couper. 2013. A spectacular new leaf-tailed gecko (Carphodactylidae: Saltuarius) from the Melville Range, north-east Australia. Zootaxa 3717 (4): 543–558
It seems that some people cannot believe this. The first photograph has often been labeled an "Urban Legend" and it supposedly originates from a construction site on Christmas Island circa 2006:
(trimmed from a larger photo. I have the larger print of this if anybody is interested)
OF THE two preceding images, the second has been authenticated (it appears in the photostream of a Flickr user named "BlueBec") and the first, though presumably just as authentic, has yet to be sourced. The EXIF data embedded in the image indicates the photo was taken on April 4, 2007 with an Olympus digital camera and was not subsequently edited.
Coconut crabs (also known as "robber crabs," scientific name Birgus latro) typically grow to about 16 inches in length, though there have been reports of specimens double that size. In any case, it is the world's largest species of land-crab and reputedly lives as long as 50 years.
An inhabitant of islands throughout the Indian and central Pacific oceans, the coconut crab tends to stick close to beaches, though it can't live in water. True to both of its common names, the omnivore's preferred food source is fallen coconuts, but it will accept whatever sustenance is at hand, including such delicacies as might be stolen from a garbage can.
The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is a species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper size limit for terrestrial animals with exoskeletons in recent Earth atmosphere, with a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9.0 lb). It can grow to up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length from leg to leg. It is found on islands across the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific Ocean as far east as the Gambier Islands, mirroring the distribution of the coconut palm; it has been extirpated from most areas with a significant human population, including mainland Australia and Madagascar.
The coconut crab is the only species of the genusBirgus, and is related to the terrestrial hermit crabs of the genus Coenobita. It shows a number of adaptations to life on land. Like hermit crabs, juvenile coconut crabs use empty gastropod shells for protection, but the adults develop a tough exoskeleton on their abdomen and stop carrying a shell. Coconut crabs have organs known as "branchiostegal lungs", which are used instead of the vestigial gills for breathing. They cannot swim, and will drown if immersed in water for long. They have developed an acute sense of smell, which has developed convergently with that of insects, and which they use to find potential food sources. Mating occurs on dry land, but the females migrate to the sea to release their fertilised eggs as they hatch. The larvae are planktonic for 3–4 weeks, before settling to the sea floor and entering a gastropod shell. Sexual maturity is reached after about 5 years, and the total lifespan may be over 60 years.
Adult coconut crabs feed on fruits, nuts, seeds, and the pith of fallen trees, but will eat carrion and other organic matter opportunistically. The species is popularly associated with the coconut, and has been widely reported to climb trees to pick coconuts, which it then opens to eat the flesh. While coconut crabs can climb trees, and can eventually open a coconut collectively, coconuts are not a significant part of their diet. Coconut crabs are hunted wherever they come into contact with people, and are subject to legal protection in some areas. In the absence of precise information, the IUCN lists the species as Data Deficient
Coconut crabs live on most coasts in the blue area; red points are primary and yellow points secondary places of settlement
Birgus latro is the largest land-living arthropod in the world;[4][5] reports about the size of Birgus latro vary, but most sources give a body length of up to 40 cm (16 in),[6] a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9.0 lb), and a leg span of more than 0.91 m (3.0 ft),[7] with males generally being larger than females.[8] The carapace may reach a length of 78 mm (3.1 in), and a width of up to 200 mm (7.9 in).[5]
The body of the coconut crab is, like that of all decapods, divided into a front section (cephalothorax), which has 10 legs, and an abdomen. The front-most pair of legs has large chelae (claws), with the left being larger than the right.[9] The next two pairs, as with other hermit crabs, are large, powerful walking legs with pointed tips, which allow coconut crabs to climb vertical or overhanging surfaces.[10] The fourth pair of legs is smaller with tweezer-like chelae at the end, allowing young coconut crabs to grip the inside of a shell or coconut husk to carry for protection; adults use this pair for walking and climbing. The last pair of legs is very small and is used by females to tend their eggs, and by the males in mating.[9] This last pair of legs is usually held inside the carapace, in the cavity containing the breathing organs. There is some difference in colour between the animals found on different islands, ranging from orange-red to purplish blue;[11] in most regions, blue is the predominant colour, but in some places, including the Seychelles, most individuals are red.[9]
Although Birgus latro is a derived type of hermit crab, only the juveniles use salvaged snailshells to protect their soft abdomens, and adolescents sometimes use broken coconut shells to protect their abdomens. Unlike other hermit crabs, the adult coconut crabs do not carry shells but instead harden their abdominal terga by depositing chitin and chalk. Not being constrained by the physical confines of living in a shell allows this species to grow much larger than other hermit crabs in the family Coenobitidae.[12] Like most true crabs, B. latro bends its tail underneath its body for protection.[9] The hardened abdomen protects the coconut crab and reduces water loss on land, but has to be moulted periodically. Adults moult annually, and dig a burrow up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long in which to hide while vulnerable.[10] It remains in the burrow for 3 to 16 weeks, depending on the size of the animal.[10] After moulting, it takes 1 to 3 weeks for the exoskeleton to harden, depending on the animal's size, during which time the animal's body is soft and vulnerable, and it stays hidden for protection.[13]
Respiration
Print of a coconut crab from the Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle of 1849
Except as larvae, coconut crabs cannot swim, and they will drown if left in water for more than an hour.[9] They use a special organ called a branchiostegal lung to breathe. This organ can be interpreted as a developmental stage between gills and lungs, and is one of the most significant adaptations of the coconut crab to its habitat.[14] The branchiostegal lung contains a tissue similar to that found in gills, but suited to the absorption of oxygen from air, rather than water. This organ is expanded laterally and is evaginated to increase the surface area;[10] located in the cephalothorax, it is optimally placed to reduce both the blood/gas diffusion distance and the return distance of oxygenated blood to the pericardium.[15] Coconut crabs use their hindmost, smallest pair of legs to clean these breathing organs and to moisten them with water. The organs require water to properly function, and the coconut crab provides this by stroking its wet legs over the spongy tissues nearby. Coconut crabs may drink water from small puddles by transferring it from their chelipeds to their maxillipeds.[16]
In addition to the branchiostegal lung, the coconut crab has an additional rudimentary set of gills. Although these gills are comparable in number to aquatic species from the families Paguridae and the Diogenidae, they are reduced in size and have comparatively less surface area.[15]
Sense of smell
The coconut crab has a well-developed sense of smell, which it uses to locate its food.[17] The process of smelling works very differently depending on whether the smelled molecules are hydrophilic molecules in water or hydrophobic molecules in air. As most crabs live in the water, they have specialised organs called aesthetascs on their antennae to determine both the concentration and the direction of a smell. However, as coconut crabs live on the land, the aesthetascs on their antennae are shorter and blunter than those of other crabs and look more like those of insects.[17] While insects and the coconut crab originate from different paths, the same need to detect smells in the air led to the development of remarkably similar organs. Coconut crabs flick their antennae as insects do to enhance their reception. They have an excellent sense of smell and can detect interesting odours over large distances. The smells of rotting meat, bananas, and coconuts, all potential food sources, catch their attention especially.[18] Research has shown that the olfactory system in the coconut crab's brain is well-developed compared to other areas of the brain.[19]
Life cycle
Coconut crabs mate frequently and quickly on dry land in the period from May to September, especially between early June and late August.[20] Male coconut crabs have spermatophores and deposit a mass of spermatophores on the abdomen of the female;[21] the abdomen opens at the base of the third pereiopods, and fertilisation is thought to occur on the external surface of the abdomen as the eggs pass through the spermatophore mass.[22] The extrusion of eggs occurs on land in crevices or burrows near the shore.[23] Shortly thereafter, the female lays her eggs and glues them to the underside of her abdomen, carrying the fertilised eggs underneath her body for a few months. At the time of hatching, the female coconut crab releases the eggs into the ocean.[22] This usually takes place on rocky shores at dusk, especially when this coincides with high tide.[24] The empty egg cases remain on the female's body after the larvae have been released, and the female eats the egg cases within a few days.[24]
The larvae float in the pelagic zone of the ocean with other plankton for three to four weeks,[5] during which a large number of them are eaten by predators. The larvae pass through three to five zoea stages before moulting into the post-larval glaucothoe stage; this process takes from 25 to 33 days.[25] Upon reaching the glaucothoe stage of development, they settle to the bottom, find and wear a suitably sized gastropod shell, and migrate to the shoreline with other terrestrial hermit crabs.[26] At that time, they sometimes visit dry land. Afterwards, they leave the ocean permanently and lose the ability to breathe in water. As with all hermit crabs, they change their shells as they grow. Young coconut crabs that cannot find a seashell of the right size often use broken coconut pieces. When they outgrow their shells, they develop a hardened abdomen. The coconut crab reaches sexual maturity around five years after hatching.[22] They reach their maximum size only after 40 to 60 years.[10]
Distribution
Coconut crabs live in the Indian Ocean and the central Pacific Ocean, with a distribution that closely matches that of the coconut palm.[27] The western limit of the range of B. latro is Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania,[28] while the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark the northern and southern limits, respectively, with very few population in the subtropics, such as the Ryukyu Islands.[5] There is evidence that the coconut crab once lived on the mainlands of Australia and Madagascar and on the island of Mauritius, but it no longer occurs in any of these places.[5] As they cannot swim as adults, coconut crabs must have colonised the islands as planktonic larvae.[29]
In the Pacific, the coconut crab's range became known gradually. Charles Darwin believed it was only found on "a single coral island north of the Society group".[34] The coconut crab is far more widespread, though it is not abundant on every Pacific island it inhabits.[34] Large populations exist on the Cook Islands, especially Pukapuka, Suwarrow, Mangaia, Takutea, Mauke, Atiu, and Palmerston Island. These are close to the eastern limit of its range, as are the Line Islands of Kiribati, where the coconut crab is especially frequent on Teraina (Washington Island), with its abundant coconut palm forest.[34] The Gambier Islands marks the species' eastern limit.[28]
The coconut crab can take a coconut from the ground and cut it to a husk nut, take it with its claw, climb up a tree 10 m (33 ft) high and drop the husk nut, to access the content inside.[40] They often descend from the trees by falling, and can survive a fall of at least 4.5 metres (15 ft) unhurt.[41] Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents, although it can take several days before the coconut is opened.[36]
Thomas Hale Streets discussed the behaviour in 1877, doubting that the animal would climb trees to get at the nuts.[34] In the 1980s, Holger Rumpff was able to confirm Streets's report, observing and studying how they open coconuts in the wild.[36] The animal has developed a special technique to do so: if the coconut is still covered with husk, it will use its claws to rip off strips, always starting from the side with the three germination pores, the group of three small circles found on the outside of the coconut. Once the pores are visible, the coconut crab will bang its pincers on one of them until they break. Afterwards, it will turn around and use the smaller pincers on its other legs to pull out the white flesh of the coconut. Using their strong claws, larger individuals can even break the hard coconut into smaller pieces for easier consumption.[42]
Habitat
Birgus_latro_(Bora-Bora)
Coconut crabs vary in size and colouring.
Coconut crabs are considered one of the most terrestrial decapods,[43] with most aspects of its life linked to a terrestrial existence; they will drown in sea water in less than a day.[16] Coconut crabs live alone in underground burrows and rock crevices, depending on the local terrain. They dig their own burrows in sand or loose soil. During the day, the animal stays hidden to reduce water loss from heat. The coconut crabs' burrows contain very fine yet strong fibres of the coconut husk which the animal uses as bedding.[34] While resting in its burrow, the coconut crab closes the entrances with one of its claws to create the moist microclimate within the burrow necessary for its breathing organs. In areas with a large coconut crab population, some may come out during the day, perhaps to gain an advantage in the search for food. Other times they will emerge if it is moist or raining, since these conditions allow them to breathe more easily. They live almost exclusively on land, returning to the sea only to release their eggs; on Christmas Island, for instance, B. latro is abundant 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the sea.[44]
Relationship with human beings
Adult coconut crabs have no known predators apart from other coconut crabs and people. Its large size and the quality of its meat means that the coconut crab is extensively hunted and is rare on islands with a human population.[45] The coconut crab is eaten by Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders and is considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac, and intensive hunting has threatened the species' survival in some areas.[11] While the coconut crab itself is not innately poisonous, it may become so depending on its diet, and cases of coconut crab poisoning have occurred.[45][46] For instance, consumption of the sea mango Cerbera manghas by the coconut crab may make the coconut crab toxic due to the presence of cardiac cardenolides.[47]
The pincers of the coconut crab are powerful enough to cause noticeable pain to a human; furthermore, the coconut crab will often keep its hold for extended periods of time. Thomas Hale Streets reports a trick used by Micronesians of the Line Islands to get a coconut crab to loosen its grip: "It may be interesting to know that in such a dilemma a gentle titillation of the under soft parts of the body with any light material will cause the crab to loosen its hold."[34]
In the Cook Islands, the coconut crab is known as unga or kaveu, and in the Mariana Islands it is called ayuyu, and is sometimes associated with taotaomo'na because of the traditional belief that ancestral spirits can return in the form of animals such as the coconut crab.[48]
Conservation
Coconut crab populations in several areas have declined or become locally extinct due to both habitat loss and human predation.[49][50] In 1981, it was listed on the IUCN Red List as a vulnerable species, but a lack of biological data caused its assessment to be amended to Data Deficient in 1996.[5]
Conservation management strategies have been put in place in some regions, such as minimum legal size limit restrictions in Guam and Vanuatu, and a ban on the capture of egg-bearing females in Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia.[51] In the Northern Mariana Islands, hunting of non-egg-bearing adults above a carapace length of 30 mm (1.2 in) may take place in September, October and November, and only under licence. There is a bag limit of 5 coconut crabs on any given day, and 15 across the whole season.[52]
In Tuvalu coconut crabs live on the motu (islets) in the Funafuti Conservation Area, a marine conservation area covering 33 square kilometers (12.74 square miles) of reef, lagoon and motu on the western side of Funafuti atoll.[53]
The coconut crab has been known to western scientists since the voyages of William Dampier around 1688.[54] Based on an account by Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1705), who had called the animal "Cancer cruentatus", Carl Linnaeus (1767) named the species Cancer latro,[55] from the Latinlatro, meaning "robber". The genus Birgus was erected in 1816 by William Elford Leach, containing only Linnaeus' Cancer latro, which was thus renamed Birgus latro.[3]Birgus is classified in the family Coenobitidae, alongside one other genus, Coenobita, which contains the terrestrial hermit crabs.[3][28]
Common names for the species include coconut crab, robber crab and palm thief,[1] which mirrors the animal's name in other European languages (e.g.German: Palmendieb).[56] In the Pohnpeian language of the Eastern Caroline Islands, the crab is called Emp.[57]
Now for the "Mystery" part to this: it seems nobody seems quite certain where all these crabs live currently or in the past, and according to rumours they are appearing in other places further inland in East Africa, India and Southern Asia, and in South America. They could well be imported to many of the places but most rumours are unconfirmed. They were supposedly former residents of Southern Arabia, Madagascar, Australia and New Guinea but currently are killed off there. I would not be so certain about that part either. When I was first gathering reports of Cyptozoological creatures I included Coconut crabs because it seemed they were undocumented in many areas. Charles Darwin thought they only lived on one island in the whole Pacific just because he hadn't heard of them being anywhere else.
Well the stories are true they ARE that big. And the stories about them turning up in places like East Africa and South America (Brought in along with the coconuts) could also be true much of the time. The problem is simply that we haven't documented them there yet.
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Print of a coconut crab from the Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle of 1849
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