What is it, the biggest crab in the world?

Recently, one of the British aquariums, located in the city of Weymouth, posted on its website the largest crab in the world. This move caused a lot of excitement, thanks to which the leadership of this institution was able to make good money. However, soon a fierce dispute arose over the network as to whether or not there really are such huge people living in the world or this is another deception.

What do we know about crabs?

All crabs belong to the class of crustaceans. You can meet them in all parts of the globe, with the exception of the Arctic and Antarctic. All representatives of this species have five pairs of paws, while one of them ends with sharp claws. The size of the crab in many ways depends on what kind of crab it belongs to. So, the biggest crab in the world has claws more than 3.5 meters in length, and the smallest and was no more than 2 cm in width.

By the way, to date, scientists have discovered over four hundred species of these animals, living both in water and on land. And the researchers are sure: this is not all representatives of a huge family. Therefore, it is quite possible that soon brave adventurers will find another kind of crab, which can exceed in the sizes of all their relatives.

But as long as this does not happen, let's look at the inhabitants of the seas already known to science. Let's find out which one deserves the title "The world's largest crab".

Large land crab

The name of this species of crustaceans speaks for itself. True, for the Russian people, its more common name is the brown crab. It inhabits the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean, and some of its representatives can be found even in the Mediterranean. Has an oval body shape and a pair of claws of medium size. The shell is in most cases painted brown or reddish brown.

On average, adults grow to 25 cm in length, which makes them a good candidate for the title of the largest crab of the planet. At the same time, their weight can vary between 3-3.5 kilograms. However, science knows cases when a large land crab has grown to a much larger size.

Kamchatka crab

This species, although similar to its relatives, but, according to research by scientists, its genetic trace is much closer to hermit crabs. And yet for a long time it was accepted that he was the biggest crab in the world. This opinion was due to the fact that in the network to the fishermen many giants of this species got, later they became living examples of their remarkable sizes.

For example, it is known that sea hunters caught Kamchatka crabs, whose weight reached 10 kilograms. True, such cases are very rare today. Thus, most adults stop growing, reaching 20-25 cm in width of the cephalothorax. Thus, their weight varies within 5-7 kilograms. And then, such dimensions are inherent only in males, since females are less than about 2-3 times.

Japanese spider crab - the world's largest crab

To date, the title of the winner is listed as the Japanese spider crab. The dimensions of this species are truly amazing in their scale. Just imagine: if you put this giant on a flat surface, then the length from the end of one claw to the end of the other will be about 3.5-4 meters.

On the average, the paws of Japanese spider crab reach 40-50 cm in length. And its weight varies between 15-20 kg. Thus, we can safely say that this species is the winner by the number of giant individuals.

The truth about the inhabitant of the aquarium in Weymouth

As stated earlier, the world's largest crab, according to the owners of the aquarium, lives in the city of Weymouth. However, how did he get there and is he really an absolute record holder?

It all began with the fact that a family of fishermen caught a huge royal crab near the coast of Australia. Its weight was about 7 kilograms, and the length of the shell was 38 centimeters. Thus, he was one of the largest crabs caught in the last decade.

After a huge inhabitant of the seas bought a famous aquarium. And thanks to his advertising, he became the most famous crab on the planet. True, it can not be said with certainty that this is the largest representative of crustaceans caught by humans. He's the only one who managed to become a real star.