I've been involved in some cryptozoology discourse lately, some of which involved former cryptids that have since been found – in recent memory. Not gorillas or okapis; things found in the past 50 years or so, and as such I was able to talk about one of my favorite recent discoveries.
Kani maranjandu is a species of gecarcinucid crab native to the rainforests of the Sahyadri mountain range in India. If you were to simply look at this crab you probably wouldn’t think it’s anything spectacular, but you’d be wrong.
Kani maranjandu is a species of gecarcinucid crab native to the rainforests of the Sahyadri mountain range in India. If you were to simply look at this crab you probably wouldn’t think it’s anything spectacular, but you’d be wrong.
Kani is a fully arboreal species of crab, relying on phytotelms (water-filled cavities in plants) for water and food. These crabs feed on plant material and small invertebrates; natives noted that they are preyed on by owls and mongoose.
In fact, native ethnoknowledge is the only reason we found this crab and in fact, this info was first shared with a cryptozoologist. Matt Salasbury, a freelance journalist and author, was in the region looking for a completely distinct cryptid, the Kallana.
http://mattsalusbury.blogspot.com/2018/04/mystery-tree-crab-officially-discovered.html
A recap of his exploration was published in Fortean Times in May of 2013, making just a brief mention of this mystery crab. Salasbury reached out to several invertebrate experts and even Sir David Attenborough himself. Some of the invertebrate experts posited that the natives were describing a tarantula (I fail to see why they wouldn’t trust the natives on their word), while Attenborough thought a crab identity was plausible, after all, there are arboreal crabs elsewhere in the world.
Not much more came of this until 2014, when a survey expedition searching for local crabs also befriended the Kani. They relayed this same information, which resulted in scientists discovering and naming the crab in 2017. As to be expected, neither cryptozoology nor Matt were mentioned anywhere. This happens a lot, unfortunately, and is a symptom of a larger issue in cryptozoology that’s not worth going into here, either way, this crab is a win for cryptozoology; we found it because of ethnoknowledge!
Not much more came of this until 2014, when a survey expedition searching for local crabs also befriended the Kani. They relayed this same information, which resulted in scientists discovering and naming the crab in 2017. As to be expected, neither cryptozoology nor Matt were mentioned anywhere. This happens a lot, unfortunately, and is a symptom of a larger issue in cryptozoology that’s not worth going into here, either way, this crab is a win for cryptozoology; we found it because of ethnoknowledge!
The Kani were actually incredibly knowledgeable on these crabs; they would collect some of these crabs and make oils from them which were used in skincare. Tribesmen reportedly located crabs by looking for bubbles at the surface of the phytotelms. Their anecdotes revealed a lot about this crab, such as the fact that they likely breed in the post-monsoon season (September-October), and that they are incredibly agile in the trees. At the time, this crab was pretty novel - the crustacean fauna of the area was poorly understood so these insights allowed for a lot of new research. Other arboreal crabs have subsequently been found in the region, as well as a wealth of terrestrial crabs, and these numbers continue to grow.
https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/37/2/157/3097389
https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/37/2/157/3097389
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