Bottom-dwelling crustaceans like this mud crab use sound to avoid predators, and may even make noises to communicate

Are we alone in the Universe? How did life begin? Science has many unanswered questions. Today, one such mystery had been put to rest -the issue of whether crabs can hear.

A team of ecologists found that rather than simply responding to chemical cues in their environment, as was previously assumed, crabs have a reasonable sense of hearing underwater, despite having no ears.

The study suggests that the bottom-dwelling crustaceans use sound to avoid predators, and may even make noises to communicate.

David Kimbro, an ecologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, and a co-author on the study, said: “We all think of how dolphins use a lot of acoustic. Noone had looked this far down the food web until now.”

The research, published today in