Why is this animal unusual?
It has the longest legs of any arthropod alive – that’s the group that includes every insect, spider and crab.
Why does it look like that?
The body is only the size of a dinner plate. Everything else is leg. Young crabs stick sponges and bits of seaweed onto their shells as camouflage.
Strangest biological feature
Those legs keep growing even after the body has stopped.
Why is it strange?
Getting bigger means crawling out of its own shell. For a crab this size, that takes well over an hour – and until the new shell hardens it’s soft and helpless.
Interesting behavioral facts
Despite the looks it’s slow and calm, and divers describe it as a gentle giant. Many adults are missing a leg or two, lost to nets or predators.
Records held
Largest crab in the world by leg span. In Japan it’s called taka-ashi-gani – “tall-legs crab”.
