If you interpret about coconut crabs , you might come across this alleged factoid : the massive arthropods may have stolen the stiff of Amelia Earhart and conceal them in their burrows . But where does this claim number from ? And could coconut crabs really have hidden human clappers ?
The coconut Cancer ( Birgus latro ) is thelargest land - dwelling arthropod in the world , capable to grow up to nine pounds . This hermit crab is also considered a finesse , and is quite rare in areas where humans experience thanks to over hunting . It ’s get in costal realm throughout the Indian Ocean and South Pacific , including the area where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan made their last report . truthful to their name , Cocos nucifera crab frequently feast on coconuts ; their powerful claw can give a coconut shell , but they ’ve also been observe eating creature meat .
But does that intend that , lurking somewhere in a coconut crab ’s burrow , there may be human bones ? And could those castanets really belong to to Amelia Earhart ?
The Nikumaroro Remains
illustrious aviatorAmelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 , while set about to compass the globe along the equator . On June 2 , 1937 , Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae , New Guinea , headed for Howland Island . Their last known reported position was near the Nukumanu islands , but they never turn over Howland Island .
In 1940 , British colonial officer Gerard Gallagher reported that he had discovered a fond skeleton along with an old sextant box on Gardner Island , which is now known as Nikumaroro , part of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati . During the initial search for Earhart and Noonan , Nikumaroro was suggested as a potential landing spot for Earhart ’s woodworking plane . The Phoenix Islands are locate 350 geographical mile sou'-east of Howland Island , and Nikumaroro in special would have been seeable from the aviation .
The fond skeleton discovered by Gallagher has since been lose , but in 1941 , British colonial MD Dr. David Hoodless took measurements of the remains . His assessment was that the bones come in from a manly individual who resist five human foot five inch tall . ( Noonan was over six feet tall . ) A more late analysis of the measurements concluded that the bones belonged to a relatively tall charwoman of European parentage .
There are two mystery postulate these remains . The most obvious is whose remains are they ? There is circumstantial evidence that they could be Earhart ’s remains , but the evidence is far from conclusive . The serial numbers on the sextant corner indicate that the sextant was a manikin that Noonan had been have it away to carry , and a cosmetic jar has since been found at the same web site , one thatresembles jar containing Dr. Berry ’s Freckle Ointment , which the freckle Earhart might have used . A condom shoe heel manufacture in the 1930s was found , but it suit a sizing nine shoe , which would have been two big for Earhart . Bone fragment have been since detect at the internet site were tested for DNA , but the examination proved inconclusive . Andthe dust field of honor from Earhart ’s planemay have been spot near the island .
Update : Many of the above claim come from TIGHAR , and there are individual who are affect in maritime archeology who gainsay TIGHAR ’s claims . See the comment screw thread below with commenter MaritimeHistorian .
The other mystery story is what happened to the relaxation of the skeleton?Gallagher find out the be bone : a skull with the right arcus zygomaticus and malar bones get out off ; the mandibular bone with only four teeth in position ; part of the correct scapula ; the first thoracic vertebra ; a portion of a rib ; the left humerus ; the right wheel spoke ; the right innominate ; the right femur ; the left thighbone ; the right-hand tibia ; the right fibula ; and the right scaphoid os of the pes . If other component part of the skeleton could be encounter , they could provide more clues to the identity of the person who die on Nikumaroro .
Do Coconut Crabs Move Bones?
The claim that coconut Cancer the Crab were responsible for dismembering and removing parcel of the skeleton comes from Gallagher himself , who wrote in his report :
All little off-white have been polish off by giant coconut crabs which have also damage orotund single . Difficult to approximate age off-white owing to activities of crabs but am quite certain they are not less than four years old and probably much older .
“ He did n’t have much experience at all with coconut Cancer , ” points out Richard Gillespie , Executive Director ofThe International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery ( TIGHAR ) . “ He probably only know about coconut crabs from his experience on Gardner Island , on Nikumaroro , and he had only been living there for about a calendar month when he report that . Now the locals may have say him , ‘ Oh , coconut crabs will do that , ’ but whether they ’re right or not , I do n’t know . ”
In their campaign to learn more about the Nikumaroro persist , the folks at TIGHAR have denounce an experiment to shape whether coconut Cancer the Crab — or any other wildlife on the island — move bone . During TIGHAR ’s Niku V expedition , forensic anthropologist Karen Ramey Burns and her team put down out a grunter carcass near the site of the Gardner Island colonial small town and film the results . The TV below is a little gruesome , but it ’s also fascinating :
The light - colored animals teem and strip down the meat from the carcase are strawberry hermit crabs , while the occasional dark shapes are coconut crabby person . Incidentally , Gillespie allege that Nikumaroro ’s strawberry hermit crabs tend to be diffident around humans in position that once housed human hamlet — not so near the castaway site , where they will teem anyone who lies down . At one point , to speed up the experiment , the research worker disarticulated the finger cymbals to see if any of the wildlife would carry the pearl away . No coconut Cancer the Crab were see trying to conduct off ivory . In fact , the only crab that even attempted to lug a bone away from the carcase was a lone land pubic louse :
Other lit on coconut crabs also fails to support the hypothesis that they carried off the shipwreck survivor ’s finger cymbals . “ We ca n’t find any documented account of them actually taking things and leaving with them , ” Gillespie suppose . “ We do n’t have a go at it that Gallagher was correct when he made that assumption [ that coconut palm crabs moved the Nikumaroro remains ] . We do n’t have sex that he was wrong , either . ”
What Else Could Have Moved the Bones?
“ All this grounds bespeak to something eldritch happened on this island , ” Gillespie note , explaining that the mystery of the Nikumaroro stay has attract expert in a form of field , and the pictorial matter they paint of the island ’s ecosystem is more complex than what Gallagher reported about coconut crabs . There are a number of factors to consider when trying to cipher out what happened to the residual of the skeleton .
One of those factors is the colonists who settled on the island in early 1939 , before Gallagher discovered the remains . Gillespie points out that it ’s potential that the settlers had dogs with them , and those dogs may have been allowed to run free . In his experience as an aviation investigator , Gillespie has seen clash sites disturbed by dogs and human stiff dispel . However , it ’s not sealed that the colonist did , in fact , have dogs . There are no mentions of bounder in the records prevent by the colonists , and Gillespie is n’t certain dogs would have been name even if they had been present on the island .
There is also other wildlife to believe . Polynesian rats ( Rattus exulans ) hold out on the island , and during drought periods , they can become quite strong-growing in their search for sustenance . These rats , which are considerably smaller than Norway lowlife , would n’t be able to carry off human bones , but afford that 1938 was a serious drought year , they may form one constituent of the larger ikon of what happened to the remains . The local lagoon is also a nursery for blacktip reef shark , which sometimes bite humans , ostensibly mistaking humans for their natural quarry .
If the clay do , in fact , go to Amelia Earhart , there is yet another theory . Gillespie imagines the following : “ rent ’s say that both Earhart and Noonan outlive [ the landing place ] , but were starving to expiry , and one of them choke — Amelia died . Maybe Noonan resorted to cannibalism and that ’s why the physical structure is assign the way it is . Total conjecture , but it ’s happened before . ”
It ’s the complexity of the enigma and all of the possible factors involved that keeps draw Gillespie and the TIGHAR voluntary back to Nikumaroro . “ We ’re doing air archeology , ” he says , “ but we regain ourselves see about British majestic history , colonial administration , and coconut crabs , and shark behavior . It ’s part of what makes it so much sport . ”
ArchaeologyArthropodsScience
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