These giant freshwater crabs might just be your new Roman Empire.
Archaeologists studying Trajan’s Forum, a historic site of Roman ruins, in 2005 discovered an ancient species of crab, Fluvial potamon. The only species of freshwater crab native to Italy, researchers suspect they have been around the region since ancient times – long before it was known for gelatins and pasta.
“The underground of Rome, especially in the area of the ancient Roman Forum, is very rich in water, with many passageways and hiding places to survive,” Marco Seminara, an environmental biologist at Sapienza University of Rome, told National Geographic.
“It doesn’t surprise me that these animals have lived there for so long.”
The fall of the Roman Empire gave the crabs a low profile to safely maneuver through the city’s underground sewage systems, surfacing only at night to feed on animal waste and other organic matter.
Nature photographer Emanule Biggi has described the crabs as a “Wall of Nature”. He writes:
“Its tough temperament protects it from disturbance from many predators such as water snakes and smaller birds, and even from exotic species such as the Louisiana freshwater crayfish.”
However, these days, data suggests that the species may be in danger.
While researchers caught and identified about 500 crabs during the peak of their studies between 2004 and 2006, rising temperatures have made them nearly impossible to find.
Despite their large size – scientists say Rome crabs were between 13 and 20% larger than other members of the same species – they have been able to tunnel further into their hidden canals to stay alive. cool, as the surface of their home becomes hotter and less. wet.
Human excavations are also to blame for their population decline, having uncovered a network of underground canals that once protected the crabs. Now, predators like seagulls and crows have encroached on the crabs’ habitats.
Seminara told National Geographic that these days, he finds more crab body parts than live crabs. The species is also listed as “Near Threatened” by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
To save the species – which has been around for centuries – experts say they need funding to study them.
In 2020, the Colosseum recruited naturalists to help study and monitor the various species that live in the area between the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The seminar joined naturalist Gianluca Damiani on this mission, but the results have been much less exciting than the original discovery of the species.
In the past three years, only six new crabs have been identified, Damiani told National Geographic.
“Now they’ve gone even deeper,” Damiani said. “They are impossible to find.”
Although scientists are not concluding that crabs are currently facing extinction, they can say that crab numbers are rapidly declining.
“We would like to study these animals because they deserve not only to be studied, but also to be saved,” Damiani said. “This population cannot disappear.”
Damiani and his colleagues have asked for permission to put up railings and signs informing people about the crabs, although the city has denied those requests.
While blaming Rome’s desire to keep the area untouched for tourists, Seminara argues that the interest in these crabs would be a sight to behold in itself.
“Their existence is certainly folklore. It would be like finding a crab that lives in Central Park,” he explained to National Geographic. “This is a unique animal.”
“The fact that in the Roman Forum there is the only large fresh water crustacean that we have in Italian waters, has and will always create some surprise”.
For now, the crab species – which also lives in other areas of the Mediterranean such as Malta and the Balkan Peninsula – is protected by local and national laws. But experts believe environmental education and communication are key to saving the crabs.
For Damian, it starts with sharing their story.
“A few steps from the Colosseum, in the heart of Rome, extraordinary crustaceans survive,” he wrote in an Instagram caption, showing his images of the crabs in their natural habitat.
“The last survivors hide among the sewers and drains,” he continues, “descending deeper and deeper into a rapidly changing urban jungle.”
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Header image courtesy of Amphipolis (CC BY-SA 2.0)