Why Do Things Keep Evolving Into Crabs?

For some reason, animals keep evolving into things that look like crabs, independently, over and over again. What is it about the crab’s form that makes it so evolutionarily successful that non-crabs are apparently jealous of it? 

And thank you to Dr. Rodney Feldmann for providing a photo of the Paralomis debodeorum fossil!

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[oompalumpus]

There are only two types of lifeforms in the universe: Those who were born crab, and those who wished they were crab.

[kaldordraigo]

Species: *evolves to look like a crab*

Crustaceans: “you could not live with your own failures. Where did that bring you? Back to me”

[bray]

*-Points at Crab-*

"You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like"

[burchie]

Everyone's asking why things keep evolving into crabs, but no one is asking why we haven't evolved into crabs yet. We should really give it a try.

[heskrthmatt]

“Why do things keep evolving into crabs?”

*Looks nervously at hands*

[jeffreycervantes]

"Can I have evolution?"
"For biodiversity? "
"Yes, for biodiversity "
Actually keeps evolving crabs like a boss

[katjarozantseva]

I opened yt app and yes, "why do things keep evolving into crabs" is exactly the question I needed at 6 am

[toniodu]

1 - Armor
2 - Don't need much to survive
3 - Pincer means capable of holding things
4 - No bones and ligament means more place for power muscles
5 - Can breath both in and out the water
6 - Peak evolution

[lukaberonja]

''You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a crab''

[NinjasUseGlocks]

"Why do animals keep evolving into crabs?"

I was not aware of this issue, but I am intrigued

[monke]

I’ll see you all in a hundred million years when YouTube recommends this to us when we’re all crabs

[davchan]

We live downtown in a coastal city so we were far but not too far from the sea. One night, we heard weird scraping sounds from the backyard. My dad and I decided to check it out. We inspected the area with a flashlight and found a large blue shelled creature with very long legs.

Turns out, a coconut crab found its way to our backyard in the residantial area. So yeah, you're not alone in fearing coconut crabs.

[imemberberry]

"They hate us cuz they ain't us."
-a crab

[Doc-Holliday]

I love the implied exasperation of the title. Like some marine biologist is just looking around at his textbooks and in a moment sudden realization exclaims "why do things keep evolving into crabs!?"

[yungg]

Bro I had no idea there were so many crab impostors out there but from now one when I see one I’m callin em out fr it’s time to stand up for the true crabs

[ajyu]

Evolution, gesturing to mammals: "This is brilliant."
Evolution, pointing at crabs: "But I like this."

[dextermiguel]

This is why we always feel the urge to "snip-snip" when holding the tongs.

[littleluna]

I love how the title sounds like it came from an angry paleontologist who is very tired of finding crab fossils

[yeOldeThorne]

3:56 "Cretaceous Crab Revolution" sounds like a punk album from the 90s