The spider crab is the largest living crab on the planet and, as its name suggests, looks like the terrifying offspring of the unholy mating of a coconut crab and a Goliath tarantula. So it’s no wonder that watching one of these monstrosities shed its entire exoskeleton is nightmare-inducing, as this video shows.

It all starts out as pedestrian as a video of a 12 foot denizen of R’lyeh can get, until you notice the large red bulge on the creature’s back slowly pulsating.

The spider dances around for a while – we think it’s time lapse video, but that may just be the way this beast of the depths actually moves – then, just as the feeling that something is horribly amiss begins to build up in you, the spider crab jettisons itself from its former skeleton like some alien parasite. We presume if the video had not been taken underwater, this would have been accompanied by nightmarish, Lobstrosity-like screeching.

Overall, the whole ordeal is almost enough to make you retch. Until you realize that’s 40 pounds of perfectly shelled crab fresh for the taking. Now we just need an industrial-size tub of butter and four dozen lemons.

 
[ Read in Japanese ]