The robber crab, Birgus latro, is the world’s largest land-dwelling arthropod, with a weight reaching 4 kg and a length of over half a meter. Robber crabs are perhaps most famous for their ability to climb tall palm trees in search of coconuts, which they later are able to crack open with their massive claws. These crabs are fully adapted to a life on land, and will actually drown if submerged in water. The robber crab’s transition from sea to land has been accomplished through numerous, and in many cases far-reaching, adaptations. A question not previously addressed is how the robber crabs have adapted to olfaction in their new environment – an intriguing question, as the sense of smell needs to operate under very different conditions in air compared to water.
In an article in Current Biology, Marcus Stensmyr and Bill S. Hansson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, together with colleagues from Lund University, Sweden and University of New South Wales, Australia, show that these impressive crabs not only have a functional sense of smell, but that the olfactory system they have developed is in fact highly sophisticated and sensitive. Moreover, the crabs have managed this evolutionary feat by adopting olfactory strategies similar to those of insects. Remarkably, the similarities between the crab and insect olfactory systems extend to functional, behavioral and structural characteristics. The “insect nose” of the robber crab is a striking example of convergent evolution, and nicely illustrates how similar needs of very distantly related organisms may cause similar end results
Contact: Dr Bill S. Hansson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
+4640415300, +46708793305
Bill.hansson@vv.slu.se
13 January, 2017 - SLU
Infertile shrublands in Australia host an exceptionally high number of plant species. How the species can coexist while competing for limiting resources has puzzled ecologists for decades. Researchers, including two from SLU, suggest that part of the answer for such high plant diversity could reside in the myriad of root-associated organisms that live in soils. The study is published in Science.
30 July, 2015 - SLU
It is in moderately complex landscapes that it is most effective to deploy local conservation management measures to enhance biodiversity, such as flowering border zones. The SLU-researcher Mattias Jonsson has together with colleagues from New Zealand, Australia and USA recently published evidence for this in Journal of Applied Ecology.
26 June, 2015 - SLU
The genome of the parasite that is causing clubroot disease on several agricultural and horticultural crops is now released. The new knowledge will hopefully be useful to develop better diagnostic methods, breeding strategies and elucidating the biology of this unique plant pathogen group.
9 October, 2014 - SLU
Ultraviolet patterns can make window glass visible to birds, thus preventing fatal collisions. However, it has now been shown that such windows are not likely to work for all species, but only for birds like small passerines, gulls and parrots, who have a special type of colour vision. For birds of prey, geese, pigeons and crows, these patterns should be difficult to detect. These conclusions appear today in an article by Olle Håstad and Anders Ödeen in PeerJ.
Expertsvar, The Swedish Research Council, Hantverkargatan 11B, Stockholm SWEDENPhone +46(0)8 546 44 000
P.O. Box 1035, SE-101 38 Stockholm, expertsvar@vr.se
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