[2][6] From the late 1870s, Crane had a deep interest in recent and fossil organisms, and wrote a number of journal articles on fish, cephalopods and brachiopods.
She had no formal university training,[2] but corresponded with leading zoologists and paleontologists of the day, such as Albert Günther at the Natural History Museum, London, and presented her work or, had her work presented, to local scientific meetings, including the Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society.
[10] Within the collections left by Davidson, Crane came across some samples of brachiopods that had recently been dredged from shallow waters offshore from Port Stephens, New South Wales by Australian malacologist John Brazier.
[11] In subsequent years, Crane wrote a number of book chapters, essays and technical papers on brachiopod anatomy and evolution.
[15] Crane was well travelled and, among other things, published a serialised account of a trip to the United States with her father in 1881 in The Leisure Hour, with notes on her visits to a number of museums and collections.