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Trindade is a remote island far from 1170 km of the Brazilian coast in the Atlantic Ocean, between South America and South Africa. The island has great biodiversity and scientific studies on the fauna and flora of Trindade are still scarce. Accordingly, since crustacean species of the island are also little known, this research features an unprecedented data set, which provides information on the level of potential toxic elements in two crab species: the Grapsus grapsus (herbivore) and the endemic species Gecarcinus lagostoma (omnivorous) which is in threatened status. Although Trindade has experienced contamination from human activities, mainly plastic debris, the element levels found in the samples suggest that there are no relevant inorganic sources into the island. Since minor and trace elements accumulated by marine invertebrates does not present a pattern behavior, our results can support other studies focused on the impact of global warming to the marine ecosystem. • This is an unprecedented study on crabs from a Brazilian pristine oceanic island. • Trace metals contents were determined in the Yellow and the Sally lightfoot crabs. • Only the zinc contents were statistically different between crab species. • Both crab species could be used as bioindicators of the environmental quality. • Our results agreed with previous studies that indicated low anthropic influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]