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A bizarre scientific experiment: dead crabs chopped into a maze of tubes

Dead crabs shredded and scattered in a maze of pipes built on a beach. It is not a macabre game of a perverse mind, but the scientific experiment conducted by Dartmouth College biologists to see how the specimens of “Birgus Latro” reacted to the death of their fellow.

Here’s what happened: in a few minutes the tubes were literally assaulted by dozens of hermit crabs, recalled by the smell of the dead, with the aim was to grab the shell that he no longer needed from him, that is the ” home ”where you have more space to grow and more protection. No commemoration and no morals, of course. From the scientific point of view, the association between smell (of the dead) and action (finding a better shell) on the part of a species that is not able to produce its own shell independently is extraordinary.