Jonah crab

Jonah crab

Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Brachyura
Family: Cancridae
Genus: Cancer
Species:
C. borealis
Binomial name
Cancer borealis
Stimpson, 1859

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]

  1. ^ NatureServe (30 June 2023). "Cancer borealis". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  2. ^ Paul Haefner (1977). "Aspects of the biology of the Jonah crab, Cancer borealis Stimpson, 1859 in the mid-Atlantic Bight". Journal of Natural History. 11 (3): 303–320. Bibcode:1977JNatH..11..303H. doi:10.1080/00222937700770221.
  3. ^ D. A. Rochibaud; C. Frail (2006). "Development of Jonah crab, Cancer borealis, and rock crab, Cancer irroratus, fisheries in the Bay of Fundy (L FAs 35-38) and off southwest Nova Scotia (LFA 34): from exploratory to commercial status (1995–2004)" (PDF). Canadian Manuscript Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 2775 (3).
  4. ^ Michelle K. Harrison; Bernard J. Crespi (1999). "Phylogenetics of Cancer crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura)" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 12 (2): 186–199. doi:10.1006/mpev.1998.0608. PMID 10381321.