Hepatus epheliticus (calico box crab) (Sanibel Island, Florida, USA) 2

Description:

Summary[edit] Description: English: Hepatus epheliticus (Linnaeus, 1763) - dorsal view of a calico box crab carapace in Florida, USA. (December 2012) Orientation: anterior is at the top; posterior is at the bottom. 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 depicts a carapace of a dead Hepatus epheliticus, the calico box crab. Info. from Witherington & Witherington (2007): "Calico box crabs have stout, smooth, variably speckled bodies, short legs, and wide claws that partially hide their faces. Calico box crabs bury themselves in surf-zone sands on relatively clam beaches. Box crabs hide their faces to keep sand out of their gill chambers." Classification: Animalia, Arthropoda, Crustacea, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Brachyura, Aethridae Locality: marine beach immediately south of Sanibel Inn, southern shoreline of Sanibel Island, southwestern Florida, USA More info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacean and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatus_epheliticus Reference cited: Witherington & Witherington (2007) - Florida's Living Beaches, a Guide for the Curious Beachcomber. Sarasota, Florida. Pineapple Press, Inc. 326 pp. Date: 16 December 2012, 18:11:25. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/25540321672/. Author: James St. John.