[4] Zosimus aeneus is found across a large part of the Indo-Pacific, from South Africa to the Red Sea, and as far east as Japan, Australia and Hawaii.

[2] Both the shell and the meat of Zosimus aeneus contain significant concentrations of neurotoxins including tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin.

[5] Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is the compound responsible for the toxicity of puffer fish, while saxitoxin (SXN) is the best known of several related neurotoxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP).

[6] Poisoning with Z. aeneus can be fatal; one man in Timor-Leste died hours after consuming the crab, having received a dose equivalent to 1–2 μg saxitoxin per kilogram body mass.

[9] Studies determined that individual specimens contained in excess of 3000 MU/g of saxitoxin, a lethal amount for humans that resulted in 12 fatalities in Negros Island in the 1980s.