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These hot, humid caves are not comfortable for humans, remain largely inaccessible, hence little is known about life forms, if any, which inhabit these spaces.⠀

Environments hostile to human life are not necessarily hostile to life; think of the extremophiles which inhabit seafloor hydrothermal vents. Similarly, these hot, humid caves host chemosynthetic bacteria colonies which are a tasty treat for other life forms. So while claims of giant #crabs which grow their own #crystal covered
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shells living deep below the Earth may seem outlandish, in the Pacific, the hydrothermal vent crab, Bythograea thermydron is so common at hydrothermal vent fields, that scientists now use sightings of the crabs to find the vents, rather than the other way around. So, perhaps we should not be so surprised. ⠀

As for the unexpected sightings of crystals growing directly on the crabs, & claims that the crabs cultivate these crystals, well, this is precisely the strategy of Decorator crabs

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of the superfamily Majoidea, which cover their shells with plants and sedentary animals as camouflage, or to ward off predators using noxious organisms. It is believed that this is the same strategy employed by the Crystal Cave Crab. This begs the question from what must the crab #camouflage itself? We do not yet know what crab predator must lurk in these caves, but we infer it must be there.⠀
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