Crabs can feel pain.
Crabs feel pain
Boiling crustaceans alive is a common cooking method but the new research has led to calls for more humane alternatives to be used.
Experts at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have discovered that painful stimuli are sent to and processed by a crab's brain which provides "just more proof" that the animals can feel pain.
The study, led by PhD candidate Eleftherios Kasiouras, is the first to show that creatures have a nervous system that responds to harmful stimuli.
The boffins measured the activity in the brain's central nervous system when the soft tissues of claws, antennae and legs were exposed to stress.
Lynne Sneddon, co-author of the study, said: "We need to find less painful ways to kill shellfish if we are to continue eating them. Because now we have scientific evidence that they both experience and react to pain."