Part Male, Part Female, Fully Mysterious

[Vitaliy]

Watermen say that female blue crabs "paint their fingernails," meaning the tips of their claws turn bright red as they age. The male crabs, on the other hand, have sky-blue claws -- a sign as masculine as a mustache in the world of crustaceans.

So when Robbie Watson dumped out a crab trap and found a specimen with one red claw and one blue one, the discovery stopped him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/15/AR2005061502231.html

 

[WckedMidas]

cool

 

[piranha45]

that is cool. those crabs are mean bastards from what i hear

 

[Koji]

But ain;t the sex of these crab determinded by the shape of that thing under them? The trianglular one is male and a semi circle looking one will be female?

 

[phene4grene420]

all i know is....i'm crab free

 

[DRaGoNoVA]

maybe it has both sex organs

 

[redtailfool]

hermaprhodite. Ive also heard talks of crabs being "***" ? i dont know how or why but i just hear that ..

 

[sleepyflight]

Its not a hermaphro. if you read the entire article. Its a bilateral gene split. The circus thing of the half man/half women is what this is an example of, and yes....the article does say that it has both sex organs.

 

[redtailfool]

Its not a hermaphro. if you read the entire article. Its a bilateral gene split. The circus thing of the half man/half women is what this is an example of, and yes....the article does say that it has both sex organs.

I was just fooling around on my first post. But now that you mentioned that it has both male and female organs, isnt that the very definition of a hermaprodite?
maybe i need to go to sleep now..

 

[sleepyflight]

to get detailed....yes it could but.... To qualify as a hermaphrodite you only have to have both sex organs ie. two test., two ovaries, penis, and vagina. This animial is precisely split down the middle! As if it were to have one testical, one ovary, one breast etc. You could say this is an extraordinarily detailed hermaphrodite or, as in the article a bilateral gynandromorph. I would also have to say hermaphroditic occurances are more common since it is a more simple genetic screw up. To have two perfect but opposite halfs I'm sure would be a bit more difficult for nature to pull off.