138 CONARD: DASA 2019-2 T?* are very fond of it.. DUNHAM: Thev sa; there's a distinction between this and a staple, which is something they must have to live on—a main constituent in the diet. Crab is a delicacy when they can get one. CONARD: These crabs have a concentration of 4000 to 5000 units of strontium- 29. FREMONT-SMITH: In their shells? In their meat and their shells? DONALDSON: It's in their digeative gland. It's characteristic of crustaceans to build up reserves of minerals to use at the time they molt and this then is translocated into the shell from the storage house, in this case in the..... FREMONT-SMITH: It stores minerals in its skeleton and then releases them when it's going to make a shell. When the crab makes its new shell it takes it not from the skeleton but from the digested matter. DONALDSON: This translocation takes place in relatively short order. One distinct difference between the coconut crab and the usual crustacean is that as soon as the crab finishes the molting process and the new shell is formed, the crab eats the old shell and thus these mincrals are returned to its body. FREMONT-SMITH: DONALDSON: They eat the shell. FREMONT-SMITH: DONALDSON: They eat what? The old shell? Yes. FREMONT-SMITH: So they don't lose anything. DONALDSON: So it preserves the materials and they go on perpetuating this process year after year. This is a particular situation peculiar to the coconut crab. It's not typical of crustaceans in general. FREMONT-SMITH: coconut crab does? I'm sorry. This eating the shell is what the