To Crab, or Not to Crab?

We can all picture a crab, but did you know that nature has reinvented those claw clicking, sideways scuttling crustaceans at least five separate times? In recent years the internet has run wild with the idea that crabs are the ultimate life-form, and that even humans might one day end up with pincers too. But is there any truth behind the memes? Hannah and Dara scale the tangled tree of life and tackle taxonomy to figure out if ‘crab’ really is evolution’s favourite shape. Exploring coconut to spanner, ghost to hermit, soldier to spider they learn how to tell the ‘true’ crabs from the impostors.

You can send your everyday mysteries for the team to investigate to: [email protected]

Contributors
Dr Joanna Wolfe – Evolutionary Biologist, Harvard University and UC Santa Barbara
Professor Matthew Wills - Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology, University of Bath
Ned Suesat-Williams – Director of the Crab Museum, Margate

Producer: Emily Bird
Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem
A BBC Studios Production