Page 38 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

CRUSTACEANS BRANCHIOPODS
These small crustaceans use leaflike limbs
for movement, respiration, and to gather food
particles. Branchiopods are found mostly in
From tiny brine shrimps to large spider crabs, the fresh water, although brine shrimps are a
50,000 species of crustacean are very diverse and live species of branchiopod that live in salty lakes
mainly in the sea and fresh water. Crustaceans have a and pools. Brine shrimps have a short
hard external skeleton, known as the exoskeleton or life cycle and lay eggs that can
cuticle, jointed limbs, two pairs of sensory antennae, remain dormant for years.
and compound eyes on stalks. Their heads and
thoraxes are often covered by a shield or carapace. COPEPODS
Superabundant in the plankton found
near the ocean’s surface, these tiny
crustaceans are also found in fresh water.
Peacock mantis shrimp Copepods have a teardrop-shaped,
transparent body, with a single compound
eye, and large antennae that, along with the
swimming legs, play a part in movement.

Freshwater Brine
copepod shrimp
WOODLICE
Among the few
crustaceans that live on Pill woodlouse
land, woodlice thrive in dark, rolling up
damp places, such as rotting wood,
where they feed on dead plant matter. Woodlice
Their upper surface is protected by tough,
curved plates, and females carry their eggs
in a special pouch on their undersides.

MANTIS SHRIMP
This ferocious predator is neither a shrimp nor a
praying mantis (a type of insect). Its second pair of
legs—normally folded away, like those of a praying
mantis—are adapted for either spearing or smashing
prey. When the mantis shrimp ambushes prey, it
shoots out these legs at high speed to kill or
dismember its victim. Crayfish

LOBSTER AND CRAYFISH
Big crustaceans with a hard carapace and long
abdomen, lobsters emerge from hiding at night and
use their massive claws to crush and cut prey. Lobsters
walk over the seabed, but can flip their tails to swim backward.
Crayfish resemble small lobsters. They live in freshwater
streams and rivers, where they make burrows in silt and mud.

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