Question

The shells of crabs found around a particular coastal location in Japan seem mostly to resemble the legendary face of a Samurai. Given below are two explanations of this observed fat. Which of these strikes you as a scientific explanation?
(a) A tragic accident several centuries ago drowned a young Samurai. As a tribute to his bravery, nature through its inscrutable ways immortalised his face by imprinting it on the crab shells in that area.
(b) After the sea tragedy, fisherman in that area in a gesture of honour to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidently had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently the particular shape of the crab shells survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.

Answer 1

it seems option (b) is the best scientific explanation.

After the sea tragedy, fishermen in that area, in a gesture of honor to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidentally had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently, the particular shape of the crab shell survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.

Explanation : Nature won’t give tribute to anyone. It is governed by the laws of physics. But, there is a chance of formation of samurai's face accidentally by means of probability

Answer 2

Hey there ,

The question tells us that Shells of crab in a particular area resembles the face of a Samurai. The question asks for a scientific explanation from the given options.

Lets dive into the options to find out our answer :-)

Option ( a ) : A tragic accident several centuries ago drowned a young Samurai. As a tribute to his bravery, nature through its inscrutable ways immortalised his face by imprinting it on the crab shells in that area.

This cant be considered Scientific , Because Nature doesnt support any particular species . It would allow the most suitable variety to multiply , So this is not our answer .

Option( b ) : After the sea tragedy, fisherman in that area in a gesture of honour to their dead hero, let free any crab shell caught by them which accidently had a shape resembling the face of a Samurai. Consequently the particular shape of the crab shells survived longer and therefore in course of time the shape was genetically propagated. This is an example of evolution by artificial selection.

This looks like The Appropriate scientific explanation As , Its a case of Artificial selection , Where Human decides which species should survive . Hence , Humans of that particular geographical area , had let all the crabs free which resembled samurai as a gesture of honour .

Hope helped !^^