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Description

This speculative critter is so unthinkable that it requires some preamble to set it up. This doesn't really make it more acceptable, but it just shows that I came up with this while considering typical evolutionary processes, not simply scheming to design something disturbing.

I imagine they'd be around the range of sizes of bats - the smaller bats, anyway. Perhaps the evolutionary path that the crabs went down on their way to crustaviacea started with them flinging themselves off cliffs into the water, possibly as a hunting method, one claw out in front to skewer their prey. Or maybe these crabs laid their eggs on cliff faces, from which the hatchlings would have to dive into the ocean. In either case, the further out into the sea they could go after launching from the cliff, the more likely they could evade shoreline predators. Membranes could help with precision targeting, and would develop into rudimentary wings used mainly for controlled descent rather than active flight, which would come later in their evolution. Eventually they would spend the majority of their time out of the water and become the crustacean masters of the skies.

(Carcinisation is the phenomenon of crustaceans repeatedly evolving a crab body plan.)

Description

This speculative critter is so unthinkable that it requires some preamble to set it up. This doesn't really make it more acceptable, but it just shows that I came up with this while considering typical evolutionary processes, not simply scheming to design something disturbing.

I imagine they'd be around the range of sizes of bats - the smaller bats, anyway. Perhaps the evolutionary path that the crabs went down on their way to crustaviacea started with them flinging themselves off cliffs into the water, possibly as a hunting method, one claw out in front to skewer their prey. Or maybe these crabs laid their eggs on cliff faces, from which the hatchlings would have to dive into the ocean. In either case, the further out into the sea they could go after launching from the cliff, the more likely they could evade shoreline predators. Membranes could help with precision targeting, and would develop into rudimentary wings used mainly for controlled descent rather than active flight, which would come later in their evolution. Eventually they would spend the majority of their time out of the water and become the crustacean masters of the skies.

(Carcinisation is the phenomenon of crustaceans repeatedly evolving a crab body plan.)