Fifth Time's The Crab Charm

Carcinization Taxonomy Crustaceans Marine biology Classification Convergent evolution Crab

Biology Science Evolution Oceanography

6 days ago 4,039 views 0 shares

Fifth Time's The Crab Charm

carcinization-memes, taxonomy-memes, biology-memes, evolution-memes, crustaceans-memes | ScienceHumor.io

Ever witnessed a taxonomist having an existential crisis? This meme captures the pure ecstasy of biological classification gone wild! On the left, we've got a "squat lobster" that's clearly not a lobster, and a "porcelain crab" that's... not actually a crab. Then there's the scientist losing their mind with the revolutionary thought: "WHAT IF IT WAS CRAB?"

This perfectly illustrates carcinization - the evolutionary phenomenon where various crustacean species independently evolve to look like crabs. Nature basically keeps hitting the "crab" button in its evolutionary sandbox mode. Taxonomists have to deal with these imposters constantly, which explains the DNA-level excitement when something might ACTUALLY be a true crab for once!

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