Spider Crab Sheds Skin

Wow. You learn something new every day. I never knew crustaceans could shed their exoskeletons. Does anyone have any knowledge of this behavior? How common is it among various species? Do they ever accidentally lose a limb or anything like that? Very interesting. I love learning new things like this.

NAture is amazing and awe-inspiring. To think whatever life evolved from single cells to this is mind-bending.

reply to post by AceWombat04
I believe all crustaceans do it, if you have ever eaten a soft-shelled crab, that is what it is, one that has shed it's shell and not had time for it to harden.
This is the most vulnerable part of a crustaceans life, as the new exoskeleton is soft, and offers no protection from predators.

reply to post by kenny71


Nice video clip of a natural process that most of us are familiar with but rarely see.. The soft tissues of this crab continue to grow through its' lifetime but the protective shell/exoskeleton does not and must be shed at times. Following is a rather simplified description from greenwing.org:

Your skeleton is inside your body. Some animals have a skeleton on the outside! It isn't made of bones, like a human skeleton. It's a tough, shell-like covering that protects the animal's soft, inner parts. You can think of it like the crust on a loaf of bread—a hard outer layer that surrounds a soft inside. This outer skeleton is called an exoskeleton (“exo” means outer).

Animals with an exoskeleton include insects, spiders, ticks, crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and some other small animals. All animals with an exoskeleton are small in size. To be big takes more body support, such as bones.

Animals with an exoskeleton have bodies divided into two or three basic sections. They have a head and an abdomen. Some also have a middle section called a thorax.

An exoskeleton is very thin and soft at places the body must bend.

An exoskeleton cannot grow. Animals shed their exoskeletons throughout their lives.

Although they are not "true" crabs, hermit crabs do something similar in that they use the discarded shells of other animals to create an exoskeleton. As the hermit grows it must move itself (it's soft parts) into increasingly larger discarded shells. I'm certain most of you were already aware of this process. You just likely never saw the molting of a "true" crab.

Never seen one shed it's shell, that's fascinating.


Makes me hungry though, spider crab is tasty with pasta!

That's pretty amazing!

It'd be pretty cool if it could somehow leave a bit of itself behind and have a slave drone buddy

was not expecting that at all......

Very interesting video, OP.

It´s truly creepy.

lol I always wondered how they did that. Thanks

reply to post by kenny71


As cool as that was please tell me how this has anything to do with this website and conspiracies.


Stars and flags....

reply to post by xX aFTeRm4Th Xx


The ATS community is a vast one. Their are different boards for different topics and so forth. If you take the time to explore it not everything is a conspiracy on here. No need for S&F. Not really looking for any. Just wanted to share a cool video.

reply to post by xX aFTeRm4Th Xx


Because it's weird nature and ATS'ers LOVE weird nature.

I know I do.

I was watching this while listening to Aphex Twin... Made it all that more disturbing.

Nice video though!

reply to post by Frontkjemper


Hhaha, they would go well together, both very creepy lol.

Can't believe noone mentioned the great doctor!

Cool vid and a perfect shed too, I'm to understand that would equal one happy healthy spider crab!

Star and Flaggy

Wow...

That was raw

I got SO much shizz when I made a topic about eating vegetarian to avoid the hormones and diseases in meat... (wheres the conspiracy!?!?!111one11) but a crab molting gets front page with minimal angry peasants with torches. Some hillbillies are biased towards meat I guess (must not be able to comprehend anything that goes against the teachings of ma and pa).

But regardless, I enjoyed the video. Seems like it would be very hard to pull all of his legs out of his shell.

I do wonder, however, if he is unarmored because of his new shell not being tough yet.

Originally posted by The_Zomar
I got SO much shizz when I made a topic about eating vegetarian to avoid the hormones and diseases in meat... (wheres the conspiracy!?!?!111one11) but a crab molting gets front page with minimal angry peasants with torches. Some hillbillies are biased towards meat I guess (must not be able to comprehend anything that goes against the teachings of ma and pa).

But regardless, I enjoyed the video. Seems like it would be very hard to pull all of his legs out of his shell.

I do wonder, however, if he is unarmored because of his new shell not being tough yet.

Zomar, your vegetarian thread as well as this one both ask us to stretch our thinking. Is that not what contemplating a conspiracy does? Think of all the threads regarding aliens on ATS. What is more alien in appearance to us than this crab video? And the crab is real! Or maybe adopting a vegetarian diet would be alien to some of us.

Let's hope that in the future more people will be open to threads of this nature. I am certain you saw conspiratorial validity in your thread. Let's say the brainwashing of the masses to eat beef. There are many ways to link this crab video to conspiratorial goings on in our world. Oil spill anyone?

reply to post by The_Zomar


You like talking about the village people don't you? Its posted in fragile earth and it shows something not many people have seen before.

Why is it in such a small tank?