When asked about Aquatic and Arboreal creatures, you would assume that they are two different animals but not all animals are like this. Evolution has made some animals live in different environments like crabs that you can picture living in water, on shorelines, and on the ground, but while you might have thought of them living in these locations, have you ever thought of them living on trees? There is a species of crab from Southern India that specifically lives on trees.
In 2017, this crab was described in a paper published in the Journal of Crustacean Biology, and it was described as a new species and genus. The crab which goes by the scientific name Kani maranjandu is named after where it was first identified, among the Kani tribe.
These crabs can live on a tree thanks to their long spidery legs with sharp hook ends. They live about 10 meters up in the tree, and they feed on worms, slugs, seeds, leaves, and insects. They utilize water from leaves and the ones trapped in tree cavities.
Another animal that has shown this distinctive evolutionary distinction is the Mangrove killifish which is found in the mangrove saltwater of South America. This fish is amphibious as it lives both in water and on land. Provided the land is moist and marshy, the mangrove killifish can live up to 3 months.
Unlike regular fish that experience gill collapse outside water thereby preventing them from getting enough oxygen, killifish can adapt to living on land. They do this by expanding their blood vessels around their body to allow for more flow of blood and oxygen. When they are on land, the amount of hemoglobin in their blood is increased, allowing for increased oxygen to the body.
Researchers have been finding different organisms that have evolved to live in different ecosystems from where they lived before. Maybe one day, humans will evolve to live without issues in space.
Reference
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324866132
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/217/22/3988/12803
https://cob.silverchair-cdn.com/cob/content_public/journal/jeb/217/22/10.1242_jeb
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams
https://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4461