What is Digg?47 Comments
- ileftfark, on 11/13/2008, -0/+20Many animals have the ability to change their appearance in order to seem like a more formidable foe.
http://apina.nwpshost.com/1082.gif - ScottMcIntyre, on 11/12/2008, -1/+18Fiddlers by name fiddlers by nature. It seems these crabs send out inaccurate signals about the size of their claws to attract a female crab. Not human-like at all then?! ;-)
- GeeksSpeakFont, on 11/12/2008, -0/+14They're kind of like the jumping spiders that can "lie" for survival. It must be something with having too many legs...
- longbow486, on 11/13/2008, -0/+12Zoidberg: No one will ever want to mate with me, not with a puny claw like this. Did you see those other guys? They looked like giant claws with bodies attached.
Leela: At least you didn't smell as bad as them.
Zoidberg: You're right, my stink gland is weak. Smell! - inactive, on 11/13/2008, -1/+7My Pikachu beat your Kingler
- epemac, on 11/12/2008, -0/+6Also pictured: '*****-Knocker' from 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.'
- Oatmeal, on 11/13/2008, -0/+5Crabs are liars, and octopi are *****:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howabou ... - Escapade, on 11/13/2008, -0/+4the crab is choosing the bigger claw size? somehow i don't think we know that.
- Garofoli, on 11/13/2008, -0/+4"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy."
- kakwakas, on 11/13/2008, -0/+4And hermit crabs go around trying to find the fanciest looking shell to go around in.
I think we may have found some distant relatives. - UtopiaInTheSky, on 11/13/2008, -0/+4Crab battle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mHKHKR8x6A - GothAlice, on 11/13/2008, -1/+5You make the mistake of believing that a lie/dishonesty is a linguistic construct. You fail.
- netfool, on 11/13/2008, -0/+3From Merriam Webster:
Lie (verb): 2. to create a false or misleading impression
That's exactly what they are doing with their regenerated claw. They grow a regenerated claw identical in appearance, but it is much weaker than their previous claw. That crab probably still has the same fighting ability as he did before, but he is at a disadvantage because his new claw is not as strong.
However, I'm sure he ACTS like it was just as strong as the last one, giving of a misleading impression. Hence lying. - TKn00b, on 11/13/2008, -1/+4Fiddler Crab used Pinch.
It's super effective! - AmyVernon, on 11/12/2008, -2/+5Bastards.
- internetcoward, on 11/13/2008, -0/+3Its the same with animals that use color patterns to look like a poisonous cousin or to look like it has more eyes looking in various directions, having a false head that is a tail or just puffing up to look larger... maybe i am just missing the point but this is just a given.
- Atertract, on 11/13/2008, -1/+4A codpiece is a lie. A crab with a weak claw that appears large is just natural selection doing its thing.
- airwalkery2k, on 11/13/2008, -0/+2Oh. Are we not supposed to show off the size of our claws? Maybe that's my problem...
- inactive, on 11/13/2008, -1/+3So this is the crustacean version of talking big?
- Mujokan, on 11/13/2008, -0/+2Cheating or "defection" is a big deal in evolution. One famous name in this area is John Maynard Smith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_The ... - inactive, on 11/13/2008, -0/+2Photo led me to think this story was about the Prodigy record from the late '90s.
- granolajoe, on 11/13/2008, -0/+2No, no it didn't. At all.
- ToMoBoBo, on 11/13/2008, -0/+2The article mentions nothing about how the crabs are dishonest as the title suggests. They mention that the crabs can "cheat" by losing their claw to grow a replacement, but say nothing about how they lose it. Cheating would be if they clipped off their own claw, or tore it off by themselves somehow, in hopes to get a mate by having a better claw than they had previously had. The article mentions nothing about that, however calls them cheaters.
- Awspire, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1"fiddler crabs are ideal for studying dishonesty in signalling."
So, I guess the sock in the crotch or tissues in the bra can also be considered "dishonesty in signalling". - algaeturd, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1There are lots of dudes out there with big 'claws' that don't work very well. Just ask the ladies in the house. Nature can be very, very unkind sometimes.
- Blasphemous88, on 11/13/2008, -4/+5How is looking tougher than you really are, lying? I think this bastardizes the English language a bit. A dude works out and gets huge at the gym, does better with ladies, has better health, keeps losers from giving him any crap - he has a survival advantage - a fitness advantage.People are clearly going to think he can probably fight better than they really even know he can. He could be a total wuss.
These crabs have bigger tougher looking appendages, but it's designed for that same fitness advantage. Lying is something altogether different. There's nothing dishonest about looking or acting tougher than you are. Verbally saying you can or have done something you can't do is lying. - ConcernedCanuck, on 11/13/2008, -1/+2reminds me of guys who take steroids.
- GavinZac, on 11/14/2008, -0/+1No, natural selection (perhaps more like sexual selection?) is.
- corytheboyd, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1GIANT ENEMY CRAB
- GothAlice, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1Isn't it the duty of all captives to attempt to escape?
- bubba9999, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1Try getting pinched by one. Those little bastards hurt like a mo-fo.
- punkcat, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1lying implies it has a choice in growing a better claw.
the study is ***** in that the person doing it is throwing his feelings about the subject on to what he is studying.
they have no choice but to fight with what they have, you would have to demonstrate active choice in claw for lying or barring that, the idea that they a re saying this is my first claw, not the weaker one i was forced to grow, - Blasphemous88, on 11/14/2008, -0/+1Dishonesty implies choice. These creatures don't knowingly decide to grow these claws bigger.
Even if evolution has chosen this, evolution is not a conscious being to have a choice of it's own. The bigger the claw, the greater the fitness advantage, thus, the bigger-clawed have a survival rate higher and thus evolve out those that don't. - GothAlice, on 11/14/2008, -0/+1@punkcat: It was a choice made actively by evolution. Instead of wasting energy on re-creating a strong claw, evolution found that it doesn't /need/ to be strong, just big, and thus the crab misleads others.
- Escapade, on 11/14/2008, -0/+1it was just in response to the poster ;D
i think honesty and/or dishonesty don't fit into this situation - Mujokan, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1When they are talking about strategies here they are really talking about evolutionary strategies. (Crabs don't do anything intentionally because they can't think. There isn't a big difference between something that arises from genes like this or some other more situational strategy like "playing dead", when you are talking about crabs.)
- jontalisman, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1I don't know what the big deal is. I've never lost a fight w/a fiddler crab.
- shame126, on 11/13/2008, -0/+1That, is something you don't read about everday. Interesting!
- Dyar, on 11/13/2008, -1/+1You can always tell a bluff by how weak its stink glands are.
- anaclagon, on 11/13/2008, -0/+0I would love to see some footage of this.
- 0crabby0, on 11/13/2008, -1/+1You callin' me a liar?
Dugg...
lol - anaclagon, on 11/13/2008, -0/+0Please explain.
- Weirdcore, on 11/12/2008, -6/+5This sounded like an Onion story for a second...
- sovietninja, on 11/13/2008, -2/+1In before epic crab battle pic.
- KDX200rider, on 11/13/2008, -3/+2Bluffing is a staple among animals...Buried.
- aaronoog, on 11/13/2008, -3/+2Darn it! Somebody already beat me to the obligatory "crabs" joke.
- spenner, on 11/12/2008, -7/+3It's like when i told my girlfriend I had crabs and she dumped me.... I would have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kiddy fiddler crabs.
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