Every years hundreds of Species of animals and plants are being abolished from the face of earth. Human activities have brought a huge change in the climate and ecosystem of the planet. In that case, the rare discovery of a new species of animal is a welcome change. It brings new hope.
The discovery is not actually "new" in our human scale as it has happened a few years ago. But in the much larger timescale of the nature it is nothing. A species found a few years ago is too fresh to us.
This purple Crab is very bright in color. The crab is a native of the Palawan island of Philippines. This island is a biodiversity hotspot. There are thousands of unique species inhabiting the region.
A group of scientists has identified four new species of crabs in that island. Our bright Purple Crab is the most notable among these. All these purple crabs belong to the insulamon genus of crabs.
Previously, The insulamon crabs were found only in the Calamian islands, north of Palawan. Ant insulamon crab was never spotted in Palawan or any other place in the world before.
These crabs lives under the rocks in the small streams of the island. The creatures color indicates its age and sex. The males are brighter than the females.
The purple crab picture you saw above are named as Insulamon palawanense. It is the most colorful among all the newly discovered crustaceans of Palawan.
This reddish crab is christened as Insulamon johannchristiani. It is a strong creature with a very hard shell. The hard shell protects it from the stones carried by the high speed streams. Look at this photo of the creature posted below.
Insulamon magnum is the biggest among the four. It can grow up to 53 mm or more than 2 inches. These species has a much softer shell.
There are major mining operations are going on the area where this crab lives. It is threat to the species which is not found elsewhere in the world. Animal with such a limited habitat range is more prone to be extinct by small changes in their environment.So, steps should be taken to save this cool, purple guy.
You can learn more about them from here or here.
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