那么,一只可爱的小猫和不稳定的悬崖以及圣海伦火山有什么关系呢?

招潮蟹是奇怪的小动物。雄性拥有一只巨大的螯,其长度可能与其身体宽度一样,以及一只微小的 T 型螯。

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本文发表于《大众科学》的前博客网络,反映了作者的观点,不一定代表《大众科学》的观点


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPIc8s-V8fM

招潮蟹是奇怪的小动物。雄性拥有一只巨大的螯,其长度可能与其身体宽度一样,以及一只微小的霸王龙手臂,在螃蟹身上看起来很不协调。

最近,一位研究人员在我为史密森尼运营的海洋网站上发表了一篇博客文章,讲述了招潮蟹为什么有如此巨大的螯。一些龙虾的一只螯比另一只大,但这是因为它们可以再生在战斗中失去的螯,使其最终相比之下变小。对于招潮蟹来说,这是一个进化的问题:既是击退其他雄性的武器,也是给雌性留下深刻印象的装饰品。(在博客上阅读详细信息!


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在这篇文章中,我编辑了我的第一个视频:招潮蟹在一些史诗般的音乐中战斗。请观看上方视频!

预览图片:John Christy,史密森尼热带研究所

Hannah Waters is a science writer fascinated by the natural world, the history of its study, and the way people think about nature. On top of science blogging, she runs the Smithsonian's Ocean Portal, a marine biology education website, and is science editor for Ladybits.

Hannah is a child of the internet, who coded HTML frames on her Backstreet Boys fanpage when she was in middle school. Aptly, she rose to professional science writing through blogging (originally on Wordpress) and tweeting profusely. She's written for The Scientist, Nature Medicine, Smithsonian.com, and others.

Before turning to full-time writing, Hannah wanted to be an oceanographer or a classicist, studying Biology and Latin at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She's done ecological research on marine food webs, shorebird conservation, tropical ecology and grassland ecosystems. She worked as a lab technician at the University of Pennsylvania studying molecular biology and the epigenetics of aging. And, for a summer, she manned a microphone and a drink shaker on a tour boat off the coast of Maine, pointing out wildlife and spouting facts over a loudspeaker while serving drinks.

Email her compliments, complaints and tips at culturingscience at gmail dot com.

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