Fossil Crabs

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

This is about fossil crabs. I hit the Enter key by accident and did not finish the title. The Edit function did not allow the title to be edited.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80422171449.htm

[Gatorman]

Interesting

[Auspex]

Thanks for the link!

May I share a thought?

"...The repeated evolution suggests that such power-enhancing adaptations may evolve during times and places where resources are abundant and accessible". I know that the reporter may have shifted contexts, or that the editor might have trimmed things a bit, but I don't see how the conclusion in this statement necessarily follows the physical evidence. Way more likely that the adaptation is in response to harder food resources. Predator/prey relationships often become an arms race. Wouldn't "abundant and accessable resources" more likely lead to simply more crabs, not better-at-crushing crabs?

[MB]

"Such crabs with claws of different sizes were not known to exist until the early Cenozoic era, about 20 million years later."

until 20 millions????, the author of this species Francisco Vega, talking about this topic, said 40 milions, and in fact, a lot of Paleocene (following the Maastrichtian) genus have dimorphic claws,.

Just my opinion.

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

I would have to agree with your statement. Perhaps they should have stuck in the terms "hard-shelled" in front of the word "resources". They need to keep the words "abundant and accessible" in the sentence though. If the hard-shelled organisms were not abundant and accessible then there would have been little "need" for the crabs to go through all the trouble of developing the larger/stronger claws. As an aside, I have always been fascinated with the "arms race" among predator/prey and between plants and their consumers. I actually once thought about writing a book (fictional) that dealt with plants suddenly increasing their toxicity to combat man's mass slaughter of crops and forests. As you can tell, I have way too much time on my hands.

[MB]

I would have to agree with your statement. Perhaps they should have stuck in the terms "hard-shelled" in front of the word "resources". They need to keep the words "abundant and accessible" in the sentence though. If the hard-shelled organisms were not abundant and accessible then there would have been little "need" for the crabs to go through all the trouble of developing the larger/stronger claws. As an aside, I have always been fascinated with the "arms race" among predator/prey and between plants and their consumers. I actually once thought about writing a book (fictional) that dealt with plants suddenly increasing their toxicity to combat man's mass slaughter of crops and forests. As you can tell, I have way too much time on my hands.

In all case, thanks for the new, and it is true that the late cretaceous crabs from Mexico, are very very important and they could to be perfectly the ancestors of Cenozoic groups of crabs.

When did told you that your book will be published ???