Walking sea shell? No, it's a hermit crab!

As seen on the lovely blue water beaches of Timor with the waves lapping on the shore...

Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the super-family Paguroidea. Most of the 1100 species possess an asymmetrical abdomen which is concealed in an empty gastropod shell that is carried around by the hermit crab.

Most species have long, spirally curved abdomens, which are soft, unlike the hard, calcified abdomens seen in related crustaceans. The vulnerable abdomen is protected from predators by a salvaged empty seashell carried by the hermit crab, into which its whole body can retract. Most frequently hermit crabs use the shells of sea snails (although the shells of bivalves and scaphopods and even hollow pieces of wood and stone are used by some species). The tip of the hermit crab's abdomen is adapted to clasp strongly onto the columella of the snail shell.

As the hermit crab grows in size, it has to find a larger shell and abandon the previous one. This habit of living in a second hand shell gives rise to the popular name "hermit crab", by analogy to a hermit who lives alone. Several hermit crab species, both terrestrial and marine, use "vacancy chains" to find new shells: when a new, bigger shell becomes available, hermit crabs gather around it and form a kind of queue from largest to smallest. When the largest crab moves into the new shell, the second biggest crab moves into the newly vacated shell, thereby making its previous shell available to the third crab, and so on.

Jaco (also sometimes written as Jako) is a small island in the Lesser Sunda Islands. It lies across from the easternmost point of the island of Timor.The island is uninhabited. It is considered holy by the indigenous population and entering the island was forbidden. tourists are taken by fishermen to the island for diving and swimming.Politically it is part of the subdistrict of Tutuala within Lautém district of East Timor. It is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel, suitable for passage by small vessels only.

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