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A Caribbean hermit crab in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida. The Caribbean hermit crab (Coenobita clypeatus), also known as the soldier crab, [2] West Atlantic crab, tree crab, or purple pincher (due to the distinctive purple claw), is a species of land hermit crab native to the west Atlantic, Belize, southern Florida, [3] Venezuela, and the West Indies.
The decapod (crustaceans, such as a crab, lobster, shrimp or prawn) is made up of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon . [1] [2] Each segment may possess one pair of appendages, although in various groups these may be reduced or missing. They are, from head to tail:
A hermit crab emerges from its shell, Coenobita perlatus Outside its shell, the soft, curved abdomen of hermit crabs, such as Pagurus bernhardus, is vulnerable. Hermit crab species range in size and shape, from species only a few millimeters long to Coenobita brevimanus (Indos Crab), which can approach the size of a coconut and live 12–70 years.
The larger hermit crabs have been known to submerge their entire bodies into the sea water. The saltwater is used to bind the shell to the crabs back through the high salinity in the water. [ 6 ] In addition, water in the shell allows for rehydration, wetting the surface of their gills and abdomen which aids in gas exchange, reducing their body ...
Coenobita is closely related to the coconut crab, Birgus latro, with the two genera making up the family Coenobitidae.The name Coenobita was coined by Pierre André Latreille in 1829, from an Ecclesiastical Latin word, ultimately from the Greek κοινόβιον, meaning "commune"; the genus is masculine in gender.
This purple hermit crab is using a soup can as a shell because there were no large snail shells left in the area, probably due to collection for the souvenir market. C. brevimanus larvae are brooded inside the female's shell, then laid in seawater. This is the only time the adult C. brevimanus returns to the water after they reach adulthood ...
Gills or gill-like organs, located in different parts of the body, are found in various groups of aquatic animals, including mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fish, and amphibians. Semiterrestrial marine animals such as crabs and mudskippers have gill chambers in which they store water, enabling them to use the dissolved oxygen when they are on land.
The phylogeny of king crabs as hermit crabs who underwent secondary calcification and left their shell has been suspected since the late 1800s. [4] They are believed to have originated during the Early Miocene in shallow North Pacific waters, where most king crab genera – including all Hapalogastrinae – are distributed and where they exhibit a high amount of morphological diversity.