Carcinisation

Not to be confused with Carcinogenesis.
Porcelain crabs resemble crabs, but are more closely related to squat lobsters and hermit crabs.[1]

Carcinisation (American English: carcinization) is a form of convergent evolution in which non-crab crustaceans evolve a crab-like body plan. The term was introduced into evolutionary biology by L. A. Borradaile, who described it as "the many attempts of Nature to evolve a crab".[2]

  1. ^ Baeza, J. Antonio (2016-03-10). "Molecular phylogeny of porcelain crabs (Porcellanidae: Petrolisthes and allies) from the south eastern Pacific: the genera Allopetrolisthes and Liopetrolisthes are not natural entities". PeerJ. 4: e1805. doi:10.7717/peerj.1805. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 4793318. PMID 26989636.
  2. ^ Patsy A. McLaughlin; Rafael Lemaitre (1997). "Carcinization in the Anomura – fact or fiction? I. Evidence from adult morphology". Contributions to Zoology. 67 (2): 79–123. doi:10.1163/18759866-06702001. PDF Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine