Douoze

Crustacea Aruta (loosely translated: 'crab of Aruta'), or in English the Douoze (plural: Douozi) and formerly the Aruta Crab, is an animal belonging to the Crustacea family native to the Sub-Antarctic Islands that are usually known for its intimidating claws. These crabs inherited some octopus features such as the less stiff claws and backbone, while other notable features include a slightly altered anatomy and less-bulky bones. The Douoze was named after the founders of Merdock Dock, Mershins Douza and Docklins Oze, for the two sponsored the study of the crab.

Crustacea Aruta are far more intelligent compared to their Brachyura counterparts, notable ones include James Issac Louvre, Henry Doodles and Ivan Cowell the THird.

Background
The Crustacea Aruta mainly belongs to the Pleocyemata suborder of Crustacea, but several characteristics such as the absence of antennas and the tentacle-like bones lead speculation that it originally came from the the Cephalopoda family. Apparently, scientists have suggested the possibility of inter-breeding causing mutation and thus leading to such results. This is believed to occur more than thirty million years ago, as only 7% of its DNA are found to be inherited from octopuses.

At the time it was classified as the Crustacea Octopoda, literally crab octopus. Throughout the next thirty million years the Crustacea Octopoda evolved into the Crustacea Aruta, in which the ink sap was dropped and the backbone became present. The Crustacea Aruta had been isolated within the Sub-Antarctic Islands and therefore their growth was not substantial. Legend tells of a 'deformed crab' that was "deported" to the mainland and exposed to much colder climate, alienating himself within society and dying of hyperthermia. The description given for the 'deformed crab' matches that of the Crustacea Aruta.

In the fifteenth century the High Penguin Confederacy formally recognized the creature as a species of the Animalia kingdom, or put simply, an animal. When trying to import them to the mainland to sell them as pets, the HPC government noticed an instant drop in the population and ordered a ban on importing creatures. The ban lasted still the eighteenth century when the then-ruler lifted the ban due to the opposing society.

During the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, the Crustacea Aruta became much inactive. No important events involving the Douozi occured between this timeframe, and some biologists were starting to get worried. At the time, the creature was still considered to be a variant of the Crab, and with its absence in society, the HPC officially classified it as endangered in 1754. In 1896, the bar was raised to risk of extinction.

More than a century later, in 1972, several Crustacea Aruta were spotted along the coast of UnitedTerra. The Crustacea Arutas, having evolved greatly over the past four centuries without interference by predators, soon started appearing all over the continent.

In 1997, Mershins Douza and Docklins Oze, two investors from MAI who would eventually build Merdock Dock, invested in a 300 million pebble study into the Aruta subspecies. After five years it was reliazed that the Douze was actually an octopus-crab breed. In honour of the two investors the species was named, in English, the Douoze.