Plastic is everywhere. According to the United Nations， enough plastic wasteto fill 2，000 garbage trucks is dumped2 into waterways such as oceans， rivers， andlakes each day. There’s plastic litter at the bottom of the ocean and on top ofMount Everest.

Now plastic has been found in another surprising place： on the backs of hermit crabs3. According to a study published4 in February in the journal Science of the Total Environment， hermit crabs are using plastic litter as shells.

Zuzanna Jagiello is a scientist at the University of Warsaw， in Poland. She’sthe study’s lead author5. “For me， a hermit crab in a plastic shell could be anicon of our times，”Jagiello told TIME for Kids".“They don’t have homes， so theyuse rubbish.”Jagiello studies the Anthropocene6 age. That’s the geologic7 agewe’re in now. Scientists think of it as the time when human activity has had amajor impact8 on the environment. Hermit crabs using plastic waste as shells isone example of that impact.

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Hermit crabs are small， soft-bodied crabs that live near oceans. To protectthemselves from predators9， the crabs always wear seashells that have been leftbehind by dead sea snails10.

According to February’s study， at least 386 hermit crabs have been writtendown wearing garbage11. Of the world’s 16 kinds of hermit crabs that live onland， 10 have been seen wearing garbage. Nearly nine out of every 10 of thosecrabs were wearing plastic waste， such as bottle caps. The others wore glass or metal12， such as broken lightbulbs13 or soda cans14.

Jagiello says that she and her team first learned about hermit crabs wearinggarbage when they noticed photos of them postedonline. They decided to learn more bydoing research.

塑料無處不在。據(jù)聯(lián)合國稱，每天有足夠裝滿2000 輛垃圾車的塑料垃圾被倒入海洋、河流和湖泊等水道。海底和珠穆朗瑪峰頂都有塑料垃圾。

現(xiàn)在在另一個(gè)令人驚訝的地方發(fā)現(xiàn)了塑料：寄居蟹的背上。根據(jù)2 月份發(fā)表在《整體環(huán)境科學(xué)》雜志上的一項(xiàng)研究，寄居蟹正在使用塑料垃圾作為外殼。

蘇珊娜·雅蓋隆是波蘭華沙大學(xué)的科學(xué)家。她是這項(xiàng)研究的主要作者?！皩?duì)我來說，一只住在塑料殼里的寄居蟹可能是我們這個(gè)時(shí)代的標(biāo)志?！毖派w隆告訴《兒童時(shí)代》，“它們沒有家，所以它們用垃圾做房子?！毖派w隆研究人類世時(shí)代，就是我們現(xiàn)在所處的地質(zhì)時(shí)代?？茖W(xué)家們認(rèn)為這是人類活動(dòng)對(duì)環(huán)境產(chǎn)生重大影響的時(shí)期。寄居蟹用塑料垃圾做殼就是這種影響的一個(gè)例子。

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寄居蟹是生活在海洋附近的小型軟體蟹。為了保護(hù)自己免受捕食者的傷害，它們總是背著死去的海螺留下的殼。

根據(jù)2 月份的研究，至少有386 只寄居蟹被記錄寄居在垃圾里。在世界上16 種生活在陸地上的寄居蟹中，有10 種被發(fā)現(xiàn)寄居在垃圾中。將近90%的螃蟹身上背著塑料垃圾，比如瓶蓋。其他的寄居蟹寄居在玻璃或金屬制品中，如破碎的燈泡或汽水罐。

雅蓋隆說，她和她的團(tuán)隊(duì)第一次知道寄居蟹背著垃圾是在他們注意到網(wǎng)上發(fā)布的寄居蟹照片時(shí)。他們決定通過研究來了解更多情況。

For their study， the researchers lookedthrough the Internet for photos of hermitcrabs wearing garbage. They found photosfrom all over the world. Some had beentaken by scientists. Some had been taken bynature photographers. Manyhad been taken by peoplewho were just curious15.

What Does It Mean？

Scientists aren’t sure why hermit crabs are choosing garbage instead of snail"shells. But they have their own ideas.

Some sea snails are becoming less and less. Hermit crabs could be turning to"garbage because they can’t find enough seashells.

It’s also possible that crabs are choosing plastic because it’s light and easy"to carry. Or they’re drawn to its bright colors.

Scientists agree that plastic pollution16 is bad for wild animals and their"homes in many ways. But it isn’t clear that the crabs are in any danger.

“It’s really an amazing example of the beauty of adaptation17， how someanimals are doing about the Anthropocene age，”Jagiello says. “What are thelong-term consequences18 of these adaptations？ We don’t know.”

To study hermit crabs， researchers used iEcology—Internet Ecology. It’s away of doing research. It uses information on the Internet to find out patterns19 inthe natural world. For this study， researchers looked at photos of hermit crabs thatpeople had posted online.

iEcology isn’t perfect. The data can be biased20. For example， people aremore likely to take and post a photo of a hermit crab in a plastic shell than asnail shell， because it’s more surprising.

為了他們的研究，研究人員在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上尋找寄居蟹背著垃圾的照片。他們找到了來自世界各地的照片。有些是由科學(xué)家拍攝的，有些是由自然攝影師拍攝的，還有許多照片是被好奇的人拍下來的。

這是什么意思？

科學(xué)家們不確定為什么寄居蟹選擇垃圾而不是蝸牛殼。但是他們有自己的看法。

有些海螺數(shù)量越來越少了。寄居蟹可能會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)而選擇垃圾是因?yàn)樗鼈冋也坏阶銐虻暮Ｘ悮ぁ?/p>

寄居蟹選擇塑料也有可能是因?yàn)樗茌p，便于攜帶，或者它們就是被鮮艷的顏色所吸引。

科學(xué)家們一致認(rèn)為塑料污染物在許多方面對(duì)野生動(dòng)物及其家園有害。但尚不清楚寄居蟹是否有危險(xiǎn)?！斑@真是一個(gè)驚人的例子，展示了適應(yīng)力之美，說明了一些動(dòng)物如何應(yīng)對(duì)人類世時(shí)代。”雅蓋隆說，“這些適應(yīng)性變化造成的長期后果是什么呢？我們不知道。”

為了研究寄居蟹，研究人員使用了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)生態(tài)學(xué)。這是一種研究方式，它利用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的信息找出自然界的規(guī)律。在這項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員查看了人們上傳到網(wǎng)上的寄居蟹照片。

互聯(lián)網(wǎng)生態(tài)學(xué)并不完美。數(shù)據(jù)可能有偏差。例如，比起蝸牛殼，人們更有可能拍攝并發(fā)布一張?zhí)自谒芰蠚だ锏募木有氛掌?，因?yàn)檫@能更令人驚訝。

（英語原文選自：timeforkids.com）