"Land Hermit Crabs Embracing Trash Shells"
A study has found that the majority of land hermit crab species worldwide are using trash as shells, with about 85 percent using plastic caps. The use of artificial materials by hermit crabs is a global phenomenon, potentially driven by factors such as better camouflage in polluted environments, the abundance of trash compared to seashells, and unique shell usage in sexual signaling. However, plastic pollution poses dangers to hermit crabs, as seen in a study of the Cocos Islands where over half a million crabs died after crawling into trash items. The prevalence of human-generated trash in the oceans may be setting hermit crabs on a new evolutionary trajectory, raising questions about the ecological and evolutionary impact of artificial shells in the Anthropocene era.