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Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an asymmetric abdomen concealed by a snug-fitting shell. Hermit crabs' soft (non-calcified) abdominal exoskeleton means they must occupy shelter produced by other organisms or risk being defenseless.
King crabs are decapod crustaceans in the family Lithodidae that are chiefly found in deep waters. King crabs are not true crabs and are generally thought to be derived from hermit crab ancestors within the Paguridae, which may explain the asymmetry still found in the adult forms. This ancestry is supported by several anatomical peculiarities which are present only in king crabs and hermit crabs. Although some doubt still exists about this hypothesis, king crabs are the most widely quoted example of carcinisation among the Decapoda. Several species of king crabs, especially in Alaskan and southern South American waters, are targeted by commercial fisheries and have been subject to overfishing.
Eugène Louis Bouvier was a French entomologist and carcinologist. Bouvier was a professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.
Allodaposuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived in what is now southern Europe during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages, and possibly the Santonian stage, of the Late Cretaceous. Although generally classified as a non-crocodylian eusuchian crocodylomorph, it is sometimes placed as one of the earliest true crocodylians. Allodaposuchus is one of the most common Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs from Europe, with fossils known from Romania, Spain, and France.
Coenobita brevimanus is a species of terrestrial hermit crab belonging to the family Coenobitidae, which is composed of coastal living terrestrial hermit crabs. From there it belongs to the genus Coenobita, one of two genera split from the family, which contains sixteen species. The Latin origins of the species name, brevimanus, come from the adjective brevis ("small") and the noun manus ("hands"). It is known as the Indos crab or Indonesian crab because it is primarily distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific.
Algae eater or algivore is a common name for any bottom-dwelling or filter-feeding aquatic animal species that specialize in feeding on algae and phytoplanktons. Algae eaters are important for the fishkeeping hobby and many are commonly kept by aquarium hobbyists to improve water quality. They are also important primary consumers that relay the biomass and energy from photosynthetic autotrophes up into the food web, as well as protecting the aquatic ecosystem against algae blooms.
The Paguridae are a family of hermit crabs of the order Decapoda. The king crabs, Lithodidae, are now widely understood to be derived from deep within the Paguridae, with some authors placing their ancestors within the genus Pagurus.
The coconut crab is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab, and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod known, with a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9 lb). The distance from the tip of one leg to the tip of another can be as wide as 1 m. It is found on islands across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as far east as the Gambier Islands, Pitcairn Islands and Caroline Island and as far west as Zanzibar. While its range broadly shadows the distribution of the coconut palm, the coconut crab has been extirpated from most areas with a significant human population such as mainland Australia and Madagascar.
Hexapodidae is a family of crabs, the only family in the superfamily Hexapodoidea. It has traditionally been treated as a subfamily of the family Goneplacidae, and was originally described as a subfamily of Pinnotheridae. Its members can be distinguished from all other true crabs by the reduction of the thorax, such that only seven sternites are exposed, and only four pairs of pereiopods are present. Not counting the enlarged pair of claws, this leaves only six walking legs, from which the type genus Hexapus, and therefore the whole family, takes its name. Some anomuran "crabs", such as porcelain crabs and king crabs also have only four visible pairs of legs. With the exception of Stevea williamsi, from Mexico, all the extant members are found either in the Indo-Pacific oceans, or around the coast of Africa.
Dardanus calidus is a species of hermit crab from the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.
Pseudospongosorites is a genus of sea sponges belonging to the family Suberitidae. Currently, the genus is considered as monotypic, consisting of a single species Pseudospongosorites suberitoides. It is found in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and on the Atlantic coast of the United States as far north as North Carolina. This species is known by the common name Florida hermit crab sponge, so named because hermit crabs often use it as shelter.
Calcinus tubularis is a species of hermit crab. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea and around islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where it lives below the intertidal zone. Its carapace, eyestalks and claws are marked with numerous red spots. C. tubularis and its sister species, C. verrilli, are the only hermit crabs known to show sexual dimorphism in shell choice, with males using normal marine gastropod shells, while females use shells of gastropods in the family Vermetidae, which are attached to rocks or other hard substrates.
Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni is an extinct hermit crab species that existed during the Albian or Cenomanian in what is now Spain. It is the type species of the genus Mesoparapylocheles. It was described by René H.B. Fraaije, Adiël A. Klompmaker and Pedro Artal in 2012, and was named after the singer Michael Jackson as it was discovered on June 25, 2009, the day Jackson died.
Diogenes heteropsammicola is a species of hermit crab discovered during samplings between 2012 and 2016 in the shallow waters of the Japanese Amami Islands. This D. heteropsammicola is strongly associated with the walking corals. This hermit crab species is unique due to the discovery that they use living, growing coral as a shell. They live in the inside of the coral and can be distinguished from other types of hermits by their thin chelipeds and leg shape. Crustaceans of this type commonly replace their shell as the organism grows in size, but D. heteropsammicola are the first of their kind to use solitary corals as a shell form. Heteropsammia and Heterocyathus are the two solitary corals that this hermit species has been observed as occupying. These two coral species are also used as a home by symbiotic Sipuncula of the genus Aspidosiphon, which normally occupy the corals that were previously occupied by crabs.
Neanthes fucata is a species of marine polychaete worm in the family Nereididae. It lives in association with a hermit crab such as Pagurus bernhardus. It occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Labidochirus splendescens, commonly known as the splendid hermit crab, is a species of hermit crab found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America. It is more heavily calcified and inhabits smaller mollusc shells than most hermit crabs.
Janaria is a genus of commensal athecate hydroids in the family Hydractiniidae. It is a monotypic genus and the only species is Janaria mirabilis, commonly known as staghorn hydrocoral. It is a colonial species and lives on a shell occupied by a hermit crab. It is native to the tropical and semitropical eastern Pacific Ocean.
Pagurus dalli, commonly known as the whiteknee hermit or whiteknee hermit crab, is a species of hermit crab in the family Paguridae. It is found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean at depths down to about 276 m (900 ft). It usually lives in a mutualistic symbiosis with a sponge, or sometimes a hydroid.
Heteropsammia is a genus of apozooxanthellate corals that belong to the family Dendrophylliidae.
Tomewingia is an extinct genus of rajiform ray from the Maastrichtian epoch of the Cretaceous period. It is known solely from isolated teeth from a single species, T. problematica. The genus is named for Thomas Ewing. The species was first described from the late Maastrichtian Kemp Clay Formation of Hunt County, Texas, but has since been found in Maastrichtian strata in the Arkadelphia Formation of Hot Spring County, Arkansas, the Severn Formation of Prince George's County, Maryland, and Fairpoint Member of the Fox Hills Formation in Meade County, South Dakota. This genus was originally named Ewingia; however, this name was found to be preoccupied by a mite found in the gills of certain land crabs. This rendered the name a junior homonym.