She became a key figure and expert in ethology – concentrating on the behavior of tropical animals, jumping spiders, praying mantises, butterflies, and most importantly, fiddler crabs.

Her early work focused on the structure, distribution, and viability of surviving organisms concerning more than a hundred deep-sea fish and invertebrates.

[4] In 1933, Crane was given the new job title of Technical Associate[5] and from 1934 began to write her own articles about her research at the department – her first entitled "Deep-sea Creatures of Six Net Hauls" which was published in the NYZS's Bulletin.

New data was recorded on color during life, swimming methods, breeding habits, growth stages, relative numbers of different species and sexes, diurnal migrations, effects of storms and currents, and general viability.

Published in Zoologica, it was titled "Notes on the Biology and Ecology of Giant Tuna, Thunnus thynnus Linnaeus, observed at Portland, Maine".

[11] In 1944, Crane traveled again to Venezuela in order to find a place suitable for a new station of the Department of Tropical Research.

[13] Throughout her broadening administrative duties, Crane's scientific work never faltered, and in 1955, she was awarded a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation for worldwide crab studies.

[17] Crane was awarded an honorary Master of Science degree by Smith College in 1947 to honor her "studies of animals in their natural environment".