Bad things happen when you come out of your shell, like other crabs stealing it away and leaving you out to die. Mark Laidre, Ph. When hermit crabs have sex, male crabs have to come out of their shells at least part way. And to do this, he must leave his own. Females like these shells because they can carry more eggs in them, and males like these shells because they can grow bigger — a key predictor of reproductive success. Sometimes this happens when the evictee is trying to have sex, but sometimes this also happens when the evictee is just minding its own business. Laidre determined this in his study by measuring the genitalia of land crabs in the genus Coenobita. He also examined closely related species of crabs, some of which modify their shells and some which do not. Measuring the penis-to-body-size ratio of museum specimens led to the realization that crabs with more valuable, removable shells also had longer penises. Laidre writes:.

“Things” (aka Penises)


“Dangerous and Risky Moments”
O ver the course of evolution, penis size has been subject to female choice and competition with male rivals. He compared hundreds of specimens of nine related species of hermit crab and showed that crustaceans that have more valuable shells have longer sexual tubes, helping them keep a grip on their homes while they extend their reproductive organs toward a mate. For the past decade or so, Laidre has been studying the behavior of a terrestrial hermit crab called Coenobita compressus. These critters are less than an inch long and picky about their homes. Because the special shells take effort to create and are tough to grip onto, C. While examining preserved specimens in museums, Laidre was struck by the diversity of penis-like structures, also called sexual tubes, in hermit crabs. In particular, he noticed that C. Laidre measured the body size and sexual tube length in preserved hermit crab specimens across nine different species from the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. He calculated a penis-size-to-body ratio for each species. Its close relative C.
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January 18, pm Updated February 26, pm. Hermit crabs have found a way to have sex without leaving the house — by evolving super long penises. The plucky ocean critters boast penises that measure more than half the length of their bodies, giving them an impressive reach.
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