October 11, 2026, 6 a.m. ET
Could one or more crabs be responsible for the definitive disappearance of one of the great American heroes of the 20th century?
As researchers head to Nikumaroro, a remote Pacific island, in search of famous aviator Amelia Earhart, they will face thick vegetation, rats and giant carnivorous crabs.
Eat meat crabs?! Yes, carnivorous crabs.
Nikumaroro, an island controlled by the nation of Kiribati, is home to coconut crabs, a species of arthropod that the Natural History Museum in London calls “bird-eating giants” that thrive on “remote tropical islands.”
“Their leg span can reach one meter,” or more than a meter, the museum says on its website, and the crabs, which can live up to 60 years, “have incredible grip strength and can lift objects the weight of a 10-year-old child.” The museum describes the crabs, whose scientific name is Birgus lateras “ridiculously large, land-dwelling, bird-hunting crustaceans.” Once adults, they can only live on land and are known to hunt rats and large migratory birds, the museum says.
The Taraia Object expedition, which includes researchers from Indiana-based Purdue University, Purdue’s Archaeological Legacy Institute and the Purdue Research Foundation, departed Oct. 2 and is expected to reach the island by Oct. 12. They are looking for the plane that belonged to Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, who disappeared in 1937 while trying to be the first to fly around the world at the equator. (Purdue produced a podcast series about Earhart and the search for her plane.)
USA TODAY contacted Purdue to ask about the crabs. While the search team is en route to Nikumaroro, communication is difficult. But one member of the team, Steve Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel at Purdue University, said the team is well aware of the danger they pose, saying in an email sent by the university: “Coconut crabs are one of the reasons we leave the island every night before sunset.” »
Meanwhile, at least one theory is that Earhart met her demise not in an accident, but rather at the hands of, uh, the claws of giant coconut crabs, who have an excellent sense of smell and may have detected an injured Earhart on the beach after a crash landing.
A 2013 article in Smithsonian Magazine, building on an article in Environmental Graffiti (a now-defunct online publication), sets out the long-held, if somewhat gruesome, theory that Earhart and Noonan crash-landed their Lockheed Electra 10-E in a Nikumaroro lagoon and that she survived, but was injured.
The theory is that the crabs, whose enormous claws are strong enough to crack open coconuts, were attracted by the smell of blood and descended on the wounded airman, caught up with him and, finally, took him.
Smithsonian Magazine quotes Environmental Graffiti, which writes: “In 1940, researchers discovered a fraction of a skeleton on the island that matched Amelia Earhart’s description. Today, even more interesting clues are emerging that seem to support the idea that this is where she met her demise. The most compelling hypothesis currently under investigation is that coconut crabs submerged her where she lay.”
In 2007, researchers even attempted to test the theory, using a small pig carcass to see how the crabs would react, Environmental Graffiti said; the bones, it continues, were quickly removed and scattered by the crabs.
Perhaps the scariest thing about all of this? According to the Natural History Museum in London, coconut crabs aren’t even the largest crabs in the world. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Japanese spider crab can measure up to 12 feet from claw to claw.
Phaedra Trethan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about history and Americana. Contact her by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, on X @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra or on Threads @by_phaedra.
Gn headline
