奇速英语

According to a study published in February in the journal Science of the Total Environment, hermit crabs (寄居蟹) are using plastic litter as shells. 

Zuzanna Jagiello is the study’s lead author. “A hermit crab in a plastic shell could be an icon of our times,” Jagiello told TIME for Kids. “They don’t have homes, so they use rubbish.” Jagiello studies the Anthropocene age. That’s the geologic (地质的) age we’re in now. Scientists define it as the period in which human activity has had a major impact on the environment. Hermit crabs using plastic waste as shells is one example of that impact.

Hermit crabs are small, soft-bodied crabs that live near oceans. To protect themselves from predators, the crabs typically wear seashells that have been left behind by dead sea snails. But according to February’s study, at least 386 hermit crabs have been documented wearing garbage. Of the world’s 16 species of hermit crabs that live on land, 10 have been seen wearing trash. Nearly nine out of every 10 of those crabs were wearing plastic waste, such as bottle caps. The others wore glass or metal, such as broken lightbulbs or soda cans.

Jagiello says that she and her team first learned about hermit crabs wearing garbage when they noticed photos of them posted online. They decided to learn more by conducting research (see “Internet Ecology”). For their study, the researchers scanned the Internet for photos of hermit crabs wearing trash. They found photos from all over the world. Some had been taken by scientists. Some had been taken by nature photographers. Many had been taken by people who were just curious.

Scientists agree that plastic pollution harms wildlife and habitats in many ways. But they aren’t sure why hermit crabs are choosing litter instead of sea snail shells, nor are they sure if the crabs are in any danger. “It’s really an amazing example of how some animals are coping with the Anthropocene age,” Jagiello says. “What are the long-term consequences of these adaptations? We don’t know.”