The Extraordinary Reason Why Crabs Are Taking Over the Animal Kingdom

In a new piece for The Conversation, evolutionary paleobiologist Matthew Wills revisits the internet’s favorite idea: carcinization, a type of convergent evolution in which crabs have evolved, separately, five different times within the same large group of animals. Not only that, though. Some crabs have devolved in key ways, while others have re-evolved when that devolution did not, perhaps, prove fruitful enough. It may never have made sense to expect an animal that walks sideways to follow the rules at all. Wills teaches at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath in the southwestern English county of Somerset. His laboratory group specifically studies how the fossil record can help us develop a more complete understanding of how life has evolved into its many, many strands over time—the ones that have survived as well as the ones that have not. The fossil record can help us piece together times of flourishing evolution before history’s many mass extinctions. [View in Browser]( [Popular Mechanics]( [SHOP]( [EXCLUSIVE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [The Extraordinary Reason Why Crabs Are Taking Over the Animal Kingdom]( [The Extraordinary Reason Why Crabs Are Taking Over the Animal Kingdom]( In a new piece for The Conversation, evolutionary paleobiologist Matthew Wills revisits the internet’s favorite idea: carcinization, a type of convergent evolution in which crabs have evolved, separately, five different times within the same large group of animals. Not only that, though. Some crabs have devolved in key ways, while others have re-evolved when that devolution did not, perhaps, prove fruitful enough. It may never have made sense to expect an animal that walks sideways to follow the rules at all. Wills teaches at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath in the southwestern English county of Somerset. His laboratory group specifically studies how the fossil record can help us develop a more complete understanding of how life has evolved into its many, many strands over time—the ones that have survived as well as the ones that have not. The fossil record can help us piece together times of flourishing evolution before history’s many mass extinctions. [Read More]( [Take a Look Back at the 10 Worst Nor’easters in Recorded History]( [Take a Look Back at the 10 Worst Nor’easters in Recorded History]( Come wintertime, nor’easters cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage along the East Coast. These are the 10 most notorious. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Alternate text] [Many Know of Mount Vesuvius. Few Realize There’s a More Destructive Volcano Right Next Door]( [Many Know of Mount Vesuvius. Few Realize There’s a More Destructive Volcano Right Next Door]( Campi Flegrei boasts the biggest eruption of all the volcanoes in Europe, but it’s often overlooked for its more famous neighbor, Vesuvius. [Read More]( [Need a Vehicle Title? Bad News: There’s a Shortage of the Paper They’re Printed On]( Need a Vehicle Title? Bad News: There’s a Shortage of the Paper They’re Printed On]( The security features built into a printed vehicle title give this ownership certificate added meaning. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Alternate text] [You Need to Clean Your Chimney Yearly. Here's How.]( [You Need to Clean Your Chimney Yearly. Here's How.]( Do this every year to prevent chimney fires. [Read More]( [How Clouds—Yes, Really—Helped Ukraine Sink One of the Largest Surface Warships in the World]( [How Clouds—Yes, Really—Helped Ukraine Sink One of the Largest Surface Warships in the World]( Eight months ago, Ukrainian forces sunk the guided missile cruiser Moskva. We spoke to a radar expert about how Kyiv pulled it off against all odds. [Read More]( [Alternate text] [Win an Apple iPhone 14 Pro ($999 Value)!]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( PopularMechanics.com ©2022 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019