Callinectes sapidus (blue crab) (Mullet Key, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA)

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Description: English: Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 - anterodorsal view of a blue crab carapace in Florida, USA. (December 2012) The crustaceans are a large group of arthropods that inhabit marine, marginal marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. The crustaceans include crabs, lobsters, shrimp, crayfish, barnacles, ostracods, and other organisms. The oldest fossil crustaceans are in the Cambrian. The group experienced a significant radiation in the oceans during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. The above photo shows a bleached carapace of a blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. Info. from Witherington & Witherington (2007): "Blue crabs are swimming crabs in the Family Portunidae. Blue crabs have pointed projections on the sides of their carapace and swimming paddles on their hind legs. They are greenish and blue. Females have orange highlights and clawtips, and are more commonly beached than males. Female blue crabs are occasionally beached after migrating from estuaries to spawn at sea. Blue crabs are swift predators that eat mollusks, fishes, and other crabs." Classification: Animalia, Arthropoda, Crustacea, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Brachyura, Portunidae Locality: Fort DeSoto Gulf Pier Beach - beach just north of southwestern corner of Mullet Key, Fort DeSoto County Park, northern edge of far-western Tampa Bay, Gulf of Mexico Coast of southern Florida, USA More info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacean and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callinectes_sapidus Reference cited: Witherington & Witherington (2007) - Florida's Living Beaches, a Guide for the Curious Beachcomber. Sarasota, Florida. Pineapple Press, Inc. 326 pp. Date: 18 December 2012, 17:48:27. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/24449018231/. Author: James St. John.