SCP-3419

Item #: SCP-3419

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures:

Description: SCP-3419 is an unknown crab species of the genus Cancer. Most mature members of SCP-3419 possess a bright red carapace of roughly 2 meters in diameter from side to side. Some rare specimens possess different colors such as bright pink, black or green, and can grow up to 40 meters in diameter in some cases. Current estimations put the population of SCP-3419 at less than 100 specimens, 80 of which are under Foundation containment or close wild observation.

Like other species of its genus, SCP-3419 possesses a brain behind its antennae, but its brain is significantly larger, even compared to its larger size. The brain is connected to a rigid nervous system extending throughout its lower carapace and throughout its legs, and a circulatory system that connects its muscles, brain, and heart. SCP-3419 possesses no other systems found in other lifeforms, lacking a renal system, digestive system and no respiratory system of any kind, neither aquatic or air-based.

Underneath the upper chassis of SCP-3419 is a void where the animal's internal organs would have been. The crab's heart is located in the center of the lower carapace, rather than the upper one like others in its genus, and is surrounded by a space that is filled with an ecosystem of sorts made of out of different lifeforms. These ecosystems appear to operate as SCP-3419's internal organs and perform nearly all bodily functions. These ecosystems have been labeled SCP-3419-B.

SCP-3419-B appear to mimic many of the patterns found in ecosystems around the planet, even ones found thousands of km from where the instance of SCP-3419 containing them was found. It is believed that this similarity is the result of convergence evolution, though the possibility that SCP-3419 is copying nature intentionally is under investigation.

Most curiously, five instances of SCP-3419 have shown to host one or more sentient cultures inside their chassis. These cultures have been observed in forming civilizations in various levels of advancements as well as types.