Happy Fursday, Missians!
I trust that all of you had an awesome and safe Fourth of July. I'd already mostly celebrated my 4th on June 30th, so yesterday was spent lounging and chilling out. Since there aren't anymore summer holidays until Labor Day, it's awesome that we at least still have the rest of our Missy Show, Christmas in July posts throughout the rest of the month; but for today, we're back to one of our "regular" Missy Show posts. Another C.I.J post will be ready on Saturday.
In today's post, we're talking crustaceans. What exactly are they? What are their characteristics? Side bar: This post was supposed to explore their intelligence, but I couldn't find a lot of info on that subject, (mainly just debates on whether or not they can feel pain). So, that's why I changed the title and subject matter. Okay, explanation over. Now let's find out about Crustaceans.
Are crabs the only crustaceans? Nope. Look what else falls under the crustacean category:
*Acadian Hermit Crab
*American Lobster
*Copepod
*Ghost Crab
*Hawaiian Brown Slipper Lobster
*Pillbugs
*Sally Lightfoot Crab
*Skeleton Shrimp
*Spider Crab
*Krill
I trust that all of you had an awesome and safe Fourth of July. I'd already mostly celebrated my 4th on June 30th, so yesterday was spent lounging and chilling out. Since there aren't anymore summer holidays until Labor Day, it's awesome that we at least still have the rest of our Missy Show, Christmas in July posts throughout the rest of the month; but for today, we're back to one of our "regular" Missy Show posts. Another C.I.J post will be ready on Saturday.
In today's post, we're talking crustaceans. What exactly are they? What are their characteristics? Side bar: This post was supposed to explore their intelligence, but I couldn't find a lot of info on that subject, (mainly just debates on whether or not they can feel pain). So, that's why I changed the title and subject matter. Okay, explanation over. Now let's find out about Crustaceans.
Are crabs the only crustaceans? Nope. Look what else falls under the crustacean category:
*Acadian Hermit Crab
*American Lobster
*Copepod
*Ghost Crab
*Hawaiian Brown Slipper Lobster
*Pillbugs
*Sally Lightfoot Crab
*Skeleton Shrimp
*Spider Crab
*Krill
- Fact 1 - All Crustaceans have an exoskeleton which doesn’t grow so must be moulted for them to grow
- Fact 2: There are 44,000 different species of Crustaceans, most of them live in the sea (marine) but some are freshwater and others live on land
- Fact 3: The Woodlice is a Crustacean despite living on land
- Fact 4: Crustaceans don’t have a skeleton; their hard exoskeleton protects their body and supports them
- Fact 5: Live lobsters can be yellow, blue, orange and white but never red in color, they only turn red when they have been cooked!
- Fact 6: The most popular Crustaceans are from the Decapod group. Decapod means 'ten legs’ and species from this group include the Lobster, Prawn, Crabs and Crayfish
- Fact 7: The Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) is the largest crustacean in the world
- Fact 8: The Stygotantulus stock is the smallest Crustacean in the world, measuring less than 0.1mm in length!
- Fact 9: Soft Shell Crabs are simply crabs who have moulted their exoskeleton in order to grown and their new shell hasn’t hardened yet.
- Fact 10: A lobsters teeth are in its stomach, an area called the ‘gastric mill’
- Fact 11: Shrimps move by walking slowly across the sea floor but when fleeing from a predator, they swim backwards quickly by curling and uncurling their abdomen. This is known as the caridoid escape reaction.
- Fact 12: Male fiddler crabs have one large claw, which they wave in the air to impress females when trying to find a mate and intimidate other males and predators. The waving of their claw is thought to resemble playing the Fiddle!
- Fact 13: The Arrow Crab looks more like a spider than a crab, the only way to tell the difference is to count its legs (spiders have 8 legs whereas crabs have 10 legs)
- Fact 14: Lobsters have the ability to regenerate body (autotomy) parts that they loose, for example in order to escape a predator they can shed a claw, leg or antennae
- Fact 15: Copepods are small crustaceans, between 0.5mm and 5mm in length, one is even named Cyclops after the one-eyed giant of mythology
Today's crustacean facts and info are courtesy of "Facts About Crustaceans" at Find Fast.org and "Discover Crustaceans" at ThoughtCo.com.
Hopefully today's post didn't leave you crabby, but instead gave you plenty to think about regarding cool creatures! Plus, why be crabby when more Christmas in July is coming your way Saturday!
Until then,
This is your host J,
signing off...
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