@jake.pnw: You Won’t Believe Why Crabs Escape Their Own Bodies! 🦀 One of the coolest things about crabs is that they can’t grow with the same shell forever. Their hard outer shell, called a carapace, doesn’t stretch, so when they outgrow it, they have to crawl completely out of it in a process called molting. For a short time afterward, their new shell is soft, leaving them extremely vulnerable to predators. That’s why freshly molted crabs usually hide until their new carapace hardens by absorbing minerals from the surrounding seawater. If you ever find what looks like a perfectly intact dead crab on the beach, take a closer look. It might actually just be an empty shell left behind after a successful molt. What’s The Coolest Thing You’ve Ever Seen On The Beach? #education #learning #nature #crabs #oregoncoast