Page 39 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

CRABS
Easily identified by their short, broad bodies
protected by a hard carapace, most crabs
live in the sea, although some prefer
fresh water and even land. The first
of their five pairs of legs have
powerful pincers used to grasp and crush
food, for defense, and even for signaling
Shore crab to other crabs. The remaining eight legs
enable them to scuttle sideways quickly.

Common lobster

KRILL Spider crab
Tiny shrimplike krill are found
in vast swarms in oceans Crayfish
Krill worldwide. They are an
important source of food for
many larger marine animals.
Common shrimp

SHRIMPS
These small bottom-dwellers have
a near-transparent, highly flexible
exoskeleton. Shrimps use their legs
to swim or walk along the seabed. If
threatened, they flick their tail downward
to dart backward out of harm’s way. Most
shrimps eat almost anything, including pieces
of dead animals plucked using their tiny pincers.

BARNACLES
In early life, barnacles swim freely but they Goose barnacles
soon settle, forming large encrustations on rocks,
ships, piers, whales, and even other crustaceans.
The body of an adult barnacle is encased by chalky
plates and either fixed directly
onto a surface or, as in the case
of these goose barnacles,
attached by a stalk. Barnacles
feed by opening the plates and
extending feathery legs that filter
tiny creatures from the water.

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