Crab

This article is about the crustaceans. For other uses, see Crab (disambiguation).

Crab
Temporal range: Early Jurassic–Present
Top row, left to right: Dromia personata (Dromiidae), Dungeness crab (Cancridae), Tasmanian giant crab (Menippidae); Middle row: Corystes cassivelaunus (Corystidae), Liocarcinus vernalis (Portunidae), Carpilius maculatus (Carpiliidae); Bottom row: Gecarcinus quadratus (Gecarcinidae), Grapsus grapsus (Grapsidae), Ocypode ceratophthalmus (Ocypodidae).
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
(unranked): Reptantia
Infraorder: Brachyura
Linnaeus, 1758
Sections and subsections[1]

Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tail" in Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the thorax.[a] They live in all the world's oceans, in freshwater, and on land. They are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton. They generally have five pairs of legs, and they have pincer claws on the ends of the frontmost pair. They first appeared during the Jurassic period, around 200 million years ago.

  1. ^ De Grave, Sammy; Pentcheff, N. Dean; Ahyong, Shane T.; et al. (September 15, 2009). "A Classification of Living and Fossil Genera of Decapod Crustaceans" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. Suppl. 21: 1–109. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 6, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  2. ^ Henry George Liddell; Robert Scott. "βραχύς". A Greek–English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  3. ^ Henry George Liddell; Robert Scott. "οὐρά". A Greek–English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved May 24, 2010.


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