Curious Cases - Radio 4

Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities

Period	4 Oct 2025

Media contributions

Title	Curious Cases • Radio 4 • To Crab or Not to Crab
Degree of recognition	National
Media name/outlet	BBC Radio 4
Duration/Length/Size	28 minutes
Country/Territory	UK United Kingdom
Date	4/10/25
Description	To Crab, or Not to Crab? Curious CasesSeries 24 Episode 1 of 13 We can all picture a crab, but did you know that nature has reinvented those claw clicking, sideways scuttling crustaceans at least five separate times? In recent years the internet has run wild with the idea that crabs are the ultimate life-form, and that even humans might one day end up with pincers too. But is there any truth behind the memes? Hannah and Dara scale the tangled tree of life and tackle taxonomy to figure out if ‘crab’ really is evolution’s favourite shape. Exploring coconut to spanner, ghost to hermit, soldier to spider they learn how to tell the ‘true’ crabs from the impostors. You can send your everyday mysteries for the team to investigate to: [email protected] Contributors Dr Joanna Wolfe – Evolutionary Biologist, Harvard University and UC Santa Barbara Professor Matthew Wills - Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology, University of Bath Ned Suesat-Williams – Director of the Crab Museum, Margate Producer: Emily Bird Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem A BBC Studios Production
URL	https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002kf4f
Persons	Matthew Wills