Tuesday 24 April 2012

PURPLE CRABS DISCOVERED



A NEW species of crabs have been discovered in the Philippine island of Palawan and they're purple. Perhaps these crabs got that way after “bathing in the Purple Rain?”

Whatever may be the case, National Geographic reports the species is called Insulamon palawanese.

"It is known that crabs can discriminate colours. Therefore, it seems likely that the colouration has a signal function for the social behaviour, e.g. mating," Hendrik Freitag of the Senckenberg Museum of Zoology in Dresden, Germany told AFP.

"The particular violet coloration might just have evolved by chance, and must not necessarily have a very specific function or reason aside from being a general visual signal for recognition," Freitag told National Geographic.

Freitag's report was published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.

The newly discovered crabs are quite small in stature, each from about an inch to two inches wide. (National Geographic)

4 comments:

  1. Tidak pernah tengok ketam warna ungu. ada di Palawan saja ka ni??

    ReplyDelete
  2. ketam ini selamat dimakan ke?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Betulkah ada ketam ini. Memang cantik.

    ReplyDelete