08 - Portrood Horned Crab
These fist-sized crustaceans wash up on the glittering shores of the Allegran West Coast during low-tide and sometimes after larger storms. The most common genus of these crabs have an irregular carapace with mineral-like growths that help it blend into the surroundings and provide a high level of camouflage and physical protection when in their natural environments. Unless disturbed, these crabs will spend most of their lives near the shorelines of western Allegri and only venture out of the ocean to release eggs during their spring-time reproductive period.
The hidden people living beneath the Dark Coast have long used these animals as a convenient and renewable source of food. The heart of most villages has some kind of natural pool that can be used to either trap the crabs naturally using the tides, or to farm them. The animals are abundant all year and their numbers swell during the cold winter months, which has led to an annual festival that celebrates their ocean-side sanctuary and the natural abundance they benefit from.
Basic Information
Genetics and Reproduction
This particular crab reproduces via parthenogenesis, a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of an embryo occur directly from an egg, without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell. Although nobody living on the Allegran West Coast knows the word used in this type of reproduction, the esteemed scholar Nariman Zandos has published several minor essays on the subject during his time exploring the Dark Coast.
Ecology and Habitats
Very little is known about the natural habitat or behaviour of these dome-like crabs. They live on the ocean floor far beyond the ken of the average humans knowledge. They are slow-moving and can eat nearly anything organic given time and the necessity, including bones and wood. As an asexually reproducing creature most who are familiar with it believe that there are millions of Portood crabs in the ocean and would only naturally come on land to lay their fertilized eggs among the rocky shores, safe from watery predation.
Geographic Distribution
Related Myths
Related Technologies
Comments