Crustacean
16 crustacean organisms and their business parallels
American Lobster
Lobsters exhibit 'negligible senescence'—they don't appear to weaken, slow down, or lose fertility as they age. A 100-year-old lobster shows no more s...
Barnacles
Barnacles demonstrate commensalism by attaching to whales for transportation across oceans. The barnacle benefits from access to nutrient-rich waters...
Bioluminescent Ostracod
Sea fireflies are tiny crustaceans that have evolved an unusual solution to bioluminescent signaling: they release light externally. Males discharge g...
Boxer Crab
Boxer crabs are small crabs that wield sea anemones like boxing gloves. They grasp tiny anemones in each claw and wave them at threats, using the anem...
Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp cysts—the 'Sea Monkeys' of childhood fascination—demonstrate cryptobiosis with commercial viability. These encysted embryos can remain vi...
Christmas Island Red Crab
Every year, 40-50 million red crabs march from Christmas Island's interior forests to the coast to spawn. The migration creates one of nature's most v...
Cleaner Shrimp
Cleaner shrimp occupy the same ecological niche as cleaner wrasse but evolved the strategy independently - a striking case of convergent evolution in...
Daphnia
Daphnia (water fleas) provide the chapter's primary example of phenotypic plasticity - the ability to express different physical forms from the same g...
Decorator Crab
Decorator crabs attach algae, sponges, and hydroids to specialized hooked hairs covering their shells, creating living camouflage that conceals them f...
Eusocial Snapping Shrimp
Synalpheus regalis is the only known eusocial marine animal—a single queen reproduces while up to 300 workers defend the colony and never reproduce. T...
Fiddler Crab
Male fiddler crabs possess one enormously enlarged claw that can comprise up to half their body weight. This claw is useless for feeding - males must...
Mantis Shrimp
Marine crustacean with powerful striking appendages. Uses meral spread display as threat signal - doesn't bluff because getting called on a bluff mean...
Opossum Shrimp
Opossum shrimp (mysids) respond to predator cues by freezing - ceasing all movement to avoid triggering predator chase instincts. Many predators key o...
Peacock Mantis Shrimp
The peacock mantis shrimp possesses one of nature's most sophisticated visual communication systems. With sixteen color receptors (humans have three),...
Shore Crab
The shore crab demonstrates diet selection optimization through its mussel-eating behavior. Facing three mussel sizes (large: 20 cal/60 sec handling;...
Water Flea
Water fleas are mentioned in comparison to fruit flies to illustrate how the same Hox gene toolkit produces different body plans through differential...