Jonah crab | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Order: | Decapoda |
Suborder: | Pleocyemata |
Infraorder: | Brachyura |
Family: | Cancridae |
Genus: | Cancer |
Species: | C. borealis
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Binomial name | |
Cancer borealis Stimpson, 1859
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The Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) is a marine brachyuran crab that inhabits waters along the east coast of North America from Newfoundland to Florida.[2] Jonah crabs possess a rounded, rough-edged carapace with small light spots, and robust claws with dark brown-black tips. The maximum reported carapace width for males is 8.7 in (222 mm), while females rarely exceed 5.9 in (150 mm).[3] It is the closest relative to the European brown crab in the Western Atlantic.[4]