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Shore Crab


Decorator Crab
Crabs have one set of claws and four other pairs of legs. If a predator grabs a leg of a crab, the crab will shed it and later it will grow back.
Lined Shore crabs dance sideways down to the sea. They scrape small plants off rocks with the tiny cups on their pincers. The Lined Shore crab hides in the cracks of rocks.
Hermit crabs make their homes in empty snail shells. The hermit crab's back legs hold its shell on tight. The borrowed shells protect their soft bodies. As a hermit crab grows, it needs a bigger shell. Some hermit crabs will try and steal another's shell. They are scavengers who look for dead plants and animals that have fallen to the bottom of the tide pool.
The male crab shoots sperm into two hollows between the females back legs. That will make it possible for the female to lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, they are called zoea larva. The zoea larva feed in the ocean by trapping its food in its bristles. After a while the zoea larva change shape and are called megalopa larva. When the megalopa gets too heavy, it sinks to the bottom of the sea and starts to live as a crab. As the baby crab starts growing, it has to hide because its shell is soft. As it grows, its shell gets harder. Then when the crab gets too big for its shell, the shell cracks and falls off. This is called molting.
 
Diet Some crabs are scavengers and eat dead animals. Some eat plankton. Some young crabs eat worms. Larger crabs eat shrimp and other shellfish.
Size From 1 centimeter to nearly 2 meters
Color
Lined Shore crab - reddish-purple Kelp crab- brown on top, reddish below
Purple Shore crab - dark purple with purple spots on claws Hermit crab - gray-green
Lumpy crab - red-brown  Rock crab - light purplish-red
Life Cycle Crab eggs hatch into zoea larva which turn into megalopa larva and then into crabs.
Predators fish, birds, octopus, and sea otters
Neat Facts A barnacle sometimes gets inside a male crab and takes nourishment from its blood and changes its sex hormones, so the next time it loses its shell it is a female.
Types Lined Shore crab, Spider crab, Kelp crab, Lumpy crab, Pea crabs, Fiddler crab,
Relatives ghost shrimp (relative of the Hermit crab)
   

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 Chordates

Echinoderms

 Arthropods

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Cnidarians
sculpins sea star lobster octopus scallop  sea anemone
sea cucumber crab nudibranch abalone  
sea urchin barnacles chiton snail  
  mussel limpet