The strange crab species with apricot resembles a human face

This crab is called Heikegani or Heike, sometimes called them Samurai crabs.

The reason for these names is because the Heikegani crab's shell is very similar to the angry face of Samurai warriors.

Conveying the boat tells the details of the shell of this crab is the image of the samurai faces. They are considered to be the embodiment of the warriors of the Heike family, a samurai clan that was defeated in the battle for the throne of 1185.

Picture 1 of The strange crab species with apricot resembles a human face
This crab is called Heikegani.

About this similarity, it is said that when Samurai warriors died, all of them were dissolved into the sea, the body sank into the cold sand, and the soul joined Heikegani crabs, to from then on, their hatred faces are still engraved in the shell tomorrow.

Do not believe in what is only a legend, an astronomer and a famous American writer Carl Sagan once raised his thoughts.

Picture 2 of The strange crab species with apricot resembles a human face

He said that this coincidence is simply an artificial selection process. It is known that artificial selection is the process by which people choose other animals and plants according to some special characteristics. This process aims to eliminate mutations that are detrimental to humans and accumulate beneficial mutations. As a result, the occurrence of apricot crabs in the shape of human faces is what happened first. Later, fishermen who caught fish at sea, if he caught crab Heikegani would immediately release them into the sea to pay respect to the samurai warriors who had died. This helped intact maintain the Heikegani crab genes.

Picture 3 of The strange crab species with apricot resembles a human face

The fact that the folds on the shells of this crab are shaped like the angry facial wrinkles of Samurai soldiers are due to the muscles clinging to tomorrow. People find the similarity between the future of the Heikegani crab and the human face is a syndrome called pareidolia. In other words, pareidolia is a kind of hallucination (or "additional hallucination"). This is a phenomenon that makes people always see faces from details of things that are completely unrelated to them. In other words, one can imagine a specific face only from vague visual images of clouds, oranges, smoke .

Picture 4 of The strange crab species with apricot resembles a human face Some face-shaped crabs are also displayed in the museum.

But anyway, heikegani crabs are still inspired by reverence with legends that existed from ancient times to this day and they carry on themselves the mysteries of nature.