In Case You Were Curious About…Crabs
March 09, 2018
The Bottom Line: Delicious facts about crabs!
The Full Story:
- Both crabs and lobsters are decapods, or crustaceans with 10 limbs. Other decapods include crayfish, prawns, and shrimp.
- Crabs communicate by flapping their pincers or drumming their claws.
- The largest crab in the world is the giant Japanese Spider Crab, which can measure up to 13-feet across
- There are two kinds of crabs. First are true crabs, or brachyurans, which have a very short abdomen and use four pairs of long legs for walking. True crabs include blue crabs, spider crabs, and ghost crabs. Second are false crabs, or anomurans, which have a longer abdominal section and fewer walking legs. False crabs include hermit crabs, king crabs, and squat lobsters.
- There are about 5,000 species of crabs. Only about 4,500 are true crabs. The other 500 types are false crabs and include hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs, and crab lice.
- Crabs have large compound eyes made up of hundreds of tiny lenses.
- Crabs live in more different places than any other sea animal. They are found almost everywhere in the ocean, including smoking volcanic vents thousands of feet below the surface. They also live under the ice in Antarctica. One type of crab even lives on land and climbs trees.
- The coconut crab is a giant hermit crab that lives on islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It weighs up to 10 pounds, making it the world’s largest land invertebrate.
- Crabs hatch as tiny larvae, just the size of the head of a pin. Crab larvae float for several weeks before settling to the ocean floor to hatch.
- A female crab lays millions of eggs at one time. She carries them underneath her body until the eggs hatch.