Scientists find fiddler crabs will exchange favours for sex

news ^ | November 05, 2009 | Brian Williams

[JoeProBono]

SCIENTISTS have found that - just like some people - fiddler crabs will exchange favours for sex. Male crabs will protect a female neighbour but do so partly in exchange for sex. Australian National University researchers Richard Milner, Michael Jennions and Patricia Blackwell in a study published in Biology Letters looked at how female crabs - those without the large claw - go about protecting their territories, The Courier-Mail reports.

They found sexual offerings lead to neighbourhood coalitions, where a male crab protected females from homeless males seeking territory. The males' giant claw is the largest weapon relative to body size in the animal kingdom. Females have two small feeding claws.

Prof Jennions said stroppy males had evolved with one huge claw which was used for luring females and fighting.

[JoeProBono]

[IronKros]

Crabs and sex... reminds me of college.

[JoeProBono]

[randomhero97]

Lol. Where in the hell do these type of studies get their funding?

Nevermind, I just looked at my paycheck and saw the deduction.

[BP2]

Is that a bulge in your claw or are you just happy to see me?

[JoeProBono]

[Steelfish]

I expect humans will do this too. Any research?

[stormer]

I should’a learned to play the guitar,
should’a learned to play them drums...

[PGR88]

Interesting - and I know people who have exchanged sex and got crabs.

[Mr. Jeeves]

What, you mean it’s not all an invetnon of the evil patriarchy and we didn’t all live happily in androgynous tribes before capitalism was invented? :)

[Nonstatist]

just like some people - fiddler crabs will exchange favours for sex.

Only some people? What do you call marriage?

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“and I know people who have exchanged sex and got crabs.”....

DING! DING! DING!....We have a winner!

[JoeProBono]

[KoRn]

I wonder just how they discovered this?

[dog breath]

Sleazy crab ladies taste better, they come already buttered....With comments like that, I had better scuttle quietly away.

[Vendome]

Wonder what kind of organ they use?

[OrioleFan]

So the neighborhood stud crab sees to the needs of all the desperate housewife crabs... Hmmmmm

[Sister_T]

Well, you know what this means.

Because they found an animal in nature that does this, this means prostitution must be a “natural” act for humans.

I mean, isn’t that the same, lame argument to justify homosexuality?

[Hacklehead]

“...just like some people - fiddler crabs will exchange favours for sex. Male crabs will protect a female neighbour but do so partly in exchange for sex.”

Humans call this “marriage”.

[JoeProBono]