You wouldn’t want to tangle with a coconut crab. A new study shows that it has the strongest claws of any crustacean. Its grip is almost as strong as a lion’s jaws! The crab lives on islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans. It uses its strong claws to crack open its favorite food: coconuts.

Biologist Shin-ichiro Oka and his colleagues in Japan studied the claw strength of 29 coconut crabs. They had the animals squeeze a steel rod outfitted with a sensor that measures force. The largest crabs clamped down with nearly 3,300 Newtons of force—more than 10 times the strength of the average person’s grip. “Their claws are incredibly painful,” says Oka. He knows from experience: He was pinched twice during the study.