[JAC: Sorry, folks; I can’t stop the man. It’s a form of madness.]
by Matthew Cobb
This picture appeared on Tw*tter, taken by Matt Nicholson, aka @SharkyNichol, whose bio says “Marine biologist, ecologist, and conservationist. From #Miami, now an MSc student at Uni of Exeter”. His tw**t read: “Come try and find the camouflaging crabs #scienceinthesquare at the marine zone @UniofExeterESI”.
Now I’ll be honest with you, I can only see 1 ½ crabs (in other words, there’s one I’m sure of, and other that could be a crab). Matt said to me that he thinks there are 5 or 6. The one thing I am sure of is that there are neither nightjars nor killdeer in the tank.
Jerry – I demand that YOU STOP THIS MAN!!!! The waste of time is bad enough but now my eyesight is going. All the squinting while staring at these pictures …..Please make him stop. I obviously cannot stop myself from looking.
How can I stop him? He’s a DEAN!
Does he put these on his exams??
The real problem is not looking. The frustration is not finding.
I’m on strike. This is humiliating.
Crabs. Not even once.
Some of our most obsessive clients would try to make us play this game every Wednesday night in STD clinic, instead of just taking our Lindane prescription and going away.
Matthew’s “find the” posts are OCD inducing.
I found 117 rocks!
I found 2 definite crabs. One possible crab. One maybe crab that is partially buried. And what appears to be a badly carved image of a slightly tubby person wearing an octopus on their head, and apparently singing into a microphone.
I think Matthew has finally broken my brain.
It’s so much harder to spot them on the computer screen than in real life.
In real life, I could just poke them with a stick and say “are you a crab?” You can tell the real crabs because they’re trying to hide so they don’t answer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGy-QISVhTE
I suppose I might see one small crab, but I am not sure about that one. I can see some rocks that look only vaguely crab-like.
And ye shall tell them by their stony claws.
I see a few, maybe even 4, but I’m sure my brain is just making up stuffz.
Watch there be no crabs!
There it is… right over there in the rocks!
Argh. Forgot the check box.
There’s a box in the rocks?
With a fox.
in socks (with Knox)
Not with a fox,
not in a box,
not wearing socks,
not on the rocks.
I do not like green eggs and ham,
I do not like them Sam-I-am.
(with apologies for any inaccuracies in meter or setting- it’s been a loooong time since I read that book.)
I see one on the right side of the tank about half way up from the bottom of the photograph. That’s the only one I can spot.
As long as we’re doing marine life, how ’bout a spot the cephalopod at some point? It’ll be like all the other “spot the” games except squishier. Gotta show some love for the noble mollusk.
Speaking of c-pods, PZ is trying to emulate Jerry with a foodie item today. Haggis…
I hereby claim the band name rights to Haggis Mollusk.
We’re kind of a 90’s alt. rock revival, which I guess would really make it a 70’s rock revival, revival.
I see that one too, and there’s one in the upper left corner, against the glass. There’s a black thing to the right of it that looks crab-like but it could be algae. I see two things that look like partially hidden crabs, both on the left side of the tank; one, half way down, and the other a little farther down, against the glass. But surely those shouldn’t count, eh?! They should be out in the open!
OK, lets compare notes. The one I think I see is in the top left corner, pinned along the side just to the right of that corner. It is a small crab.
Where are the others? Gimme coordinates.
Yep, that’s one I’m pretty sure of. The other is on the left hand side near the glass, about 20% up from the lower edge of the tank. It is nestled left of a rock pointing up the tank, and below a larger rock pointing left.
On the right hand side of the tank, slightly less than half way up, there is what looks like a dead crab. At least, its legs look weird.
At the bottom of the tank, second big algae covered rock from the right; there is a grey rock near the top of it, a white rock to the left of that, pointing at it. Running between and under those two rocks I think I see the front edge of a carapace, but I’m not 100% certain.
OK, those could be crabs, but I am less sure of the 2nd one you listed.
Also there is what really is a pretty obvious pale, small crab immediately to the left of the crab I described. It is in the upper left corner, along the wall, immediately to the left of that corner. Its legs are even extended, and you can make out small serrations along the edge of its carapace. Surprised I did not see it earlier.
Bottom left, third stone up looks like a claw.
Rock of Ages
Cleft in me
Nowhere do
A crab I see.
+1 and ditto
I saw the one on the right next to the tank wall, and possibly one top left corner. I saw some nice rocks and bubbles too. The entire exercise reminded me I need better glasses.
Bottom right corner. I think I see two claws. The openings of the claws point left.
1, 2, 3. One top left corner, one just below it, one between them but more to right (front pincers and front of body only peeking out).
4. Centre right. (This is the easiest to see.)
5,6, 7. There are three on same level as the one above on the other side of the tank, but all are mostly between the rocks with just some legs and partial body visible.
8. Bottom left.
I found two more at one point, but I can’t find them again to describe. (Perhaps they moved!:-)) Blame a childhood at the beach; I loved searching the rock pools.
Show off! 😉
I would prefer to scour tide pools all day, rather than play in the water or the sand.
You say there are no nightjars or killdeer, BUT HOW CAN WE BE SURE??
There are clearly no crabs either. *Sulks*