The Selfish Shellfish Trivia Quiz

Answer: Coconut

The robber crab, also known as the coconut crab, is known for taking coconuts. It is commonly believed that it cracks them open with its claws, but this is not true as a robber crab is not strong enough to do so. Instead, the robber crab pierces its claws into the coconut and drops it from a high tree or eats coconuts that split open naturally.

Answer: Arthropod that lives on land

The robber crab can reach over three feet in length and since arthropods have heavy exoskeletons, scientists believe it is impossible for an undiscovered arthropod to be bigger, as the exoskeleton would make it practically immobile. Robber crabs have been found to weigh up to nine pounds, but most are smaller.

Answer: There is not enough information to properly label robber crabs

The International Union for Conservation of Nature states the data deficient is "is not a threatened category, although it indicates a need to obtain more information on a taxon to determine the appropriate listing." Usually the term is applied to newly discovered species or when a species is discovered in a new place and warrants reassessment of its conservation status.

It had previously been considered vulnerable until 1996.

Answer: False

Robber crabs are notoriously poor swimmers and will drown if placed in water. They do, however, lay their eggs in deep water. Robber crabs live mostly underground in moist areas.

Answer: Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy, taxonomy being the way animals are classified and grouped together. Linnaeus was not the first to name the species, but his scientific classification (renamed as Burgis latro) is the one used in present times. Previously, the species had been Cancer crumenatus.

Answer: Robber crabs may be poisonous

While robber crabs are not normally poisonous, they can be if they ate fruit that is toxic to humans. Native people from various South Pacific islands consume the robber crab on occasion, but it is not a major part of any culture's diet.

Answer: Robber crabs' are much shorter

In general, crabs have long antennae because they live in water and need the extra length to smell food in water. Robber crabs, however, live on land and do not need the length. The sense of smell is one of the robber crabs' most developed, but it has a fairly small and undeveloped brain. Scientists compare the antennae of the robber crabs to those of insects.

Answer: Construction and development projects

Robber crabs on Christmas Island are genetically different from other robber crabs. Australia had protected the crabs on the island until around 2001 when the government started using the island as a temporary immigration detention center. When a permanent complex was built in 2005, the robber crabs started being crushed by vehicles and experienced loss of habitat. Between January 2010 and November 2014, over 3,400 robber crabs had been killed on the island by traffic directly related to the immigration center, according to Max Orchard, an conservation activist.

Answer: It will use another item such as a coconut

Robber crabs are like hermit crabs in that it will shed its shell once it become too big for it and needs a new one. When it comes time for the robber crab to molt, it hides underground until its abdomen hardens as extra protection while it finds a new shell or uses a makeshift one.

Answer: Amelia Earhart

Researches had observed robber crabs killing rats and then taking the dead carcasses in their burrows. While it is unlikely a robber crab could have killed Earhart, if she died in a crash or while stranded on a deserted island, the crabs could have done the same to her.

The article mentions that part of skeleton was recovered from an island in the South Pacific near items that may have belonged to Earhart and her companion Fred Noonan. One reason for only finding part of the skeleton is that the other part was stolen by those greedy little robber crabs.