HERMIT crabs prefer brand new homes to old ones, research in Madagascar has
revealed.
Rather than make their own shelter, the crabs (Coenobita rugosus)
turn the discarded shells of marine snails into mobile homes. David Barnes of
University College Cork found that they preferred the newest shells, but when
competition for houses hots up they make do with older properties.
Some of the crabs Barnes observed resorted to using fossil shells. The crabs
probably prefer not to use these, he says, because “they are heavier, likely to
be more fragile and not as good at holding water” (Nature, vol 412,…
