I came across this unusually bold crab a few weeks ago while beach-walking in Florida.
Perhaps the size of this creature is explained by findings of marine geologist Justin Ries of the University of North Carolina, who reports that rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide may lead to larger crabs, shrimp and lobsters.
See a summary of Ries’s research and a picture of a monster lobster in this post by NPR. Wow, these exoskeletoned creatures really like carbon!
PS. All this talk of large lobsters reminds me of an illustration of evolutionary operation (EVOP) by Box and Draper.* Their process improvement method calls an ongoing series of two-level factorial designs that illuminate a path to more desirable manufacturing conditions. I will talk more about this in a future blog.
*Box, G. E. P. and N. R. Draper, Evolutionary Operation, Wiley New York, 1969. (Wiley Classics Library, paperback edition, 1998.)