{"id":1528,"date":"2022-02-18T01:42:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T01:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interestinganimalfacts.com\/?p=1528"},"modified":"2022-02-18T01:42:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T01:42:13","slug":"what-do-crabs-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interestinganimalfacts.com\/what-do-crabs-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Crabs Eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
When you say the word \u2018crab\u2019, what do you think most people think of?
For me, it’s one of two things. The first is a bizarre-looking creature that moves from side to side. The other is a dinner plate with a bright red shell on top and delicious grub inside.
No matter your perception of crabs \u2013 good, bad, or delicious\u2013 it’s hard to think of them as anything but successful.
They are a group of creatures that are known, in some capacity, to every culture and country. I would wager that there are few fishermen in the world who don\u2019t know at least 2 types of crab.
There are many reasons for their success and there are a few reasons we know about them, but the primary reason for their introduction into our lives is their delicious flavor.
It’s succulent and wonderful, but if crabs taste so good, they must be eating something that makes them taste good, right?
In fact, what do crabs actually eat? In this article, we seek to answer that question and delve into the world of our armored friends, finding out once and for all what crabs actually eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, let\u2019s answer the question of what a crab really is. A crab is a decapod crustacean to be literal about it.
This means that they are a member of a huge and diverse order of invertebrates that are closely related to the order known as insects.
The distinction between the families is that crustaceans have two parted arthropod limbs \u2013 two distinct sections \u2013 and that crustaceans have distinctly different larval forms.
Crabs, as a family, are very old indeed, first appearing at the height of the dinosaur\u2019s reign in the Jurassic period around 200 million years ago.
As this period went on, crabs radiated \u2013 increased in genetic diversity \u2013 and expanded their ranges to encompass the globe. This was due to the increase in reef and coral environments in the world\u2019s oceans, which crabs are especially well adapted to.
By the end of the Jurassic period, crabs were the dominant decapod on earth and one of the most dominant crustaceans, with only much smaller creatures outstripping them.
It should also be noted that while there are many creatures that resemble crabs, not all crabs that look like crabs are true crabs. A good example is hermit crabs and their relatives.
Although these animals may resemble crabs, they are in a sister clade to true crabs. This is actually true of lobsters as well, and indeed of a lot of other crustaceans.
The reason is that the design of a crab\u2019s body is very well suited to the needs of an ocean or reef environment. They are armored and powerful, with very few openings to exploit if a predator decides to eat them.
As such, many other crustaceans have found themselves evolutionarily moving closer in look to crabs, as the crustaceans that have a body shape like a crab survive better and so are genetically predisposed to have better chances to breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n