MadSci Network: General Biology
Query:

Re: Marine Biology -- Crustaceans

Date: Mon Mar 31 16:41:56 2003
Posted By: Allison J. Gong, Ph.D., Lecturer
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 1048829312.Gb
Message:

Hi Rachelle,

You're right, there are a lot of Internet web pages that deal with crustaceans, and it's easy to get bogged down with too much or too little information. I did a little digging around on my own, and came up with a handful of pages that you might find useful for your report.

Before I go into the list of pages, however, I want to mention that not all of the groups you listed in your question are crustaceans. Horseshoe crabs, despite their misleading common name, aren't crabs at all. In fact, they belong to a completely different subphylum (Subphylum Chelicerata) in the Phylum Arthropoda, reflecting their relatedness to spiders and scorpions. The other animals in your list -- barnacles, amphipods, isopods, and crabs -- are all members of the Subphylum Crustacea.

I did find some sites that have good general information on crustaceans, and most of them have additional links to the groups in which you are interested. I don't know what kind of information would be "too simplistic" or "too technical" for you, but you should check out these pages:

1. http://www.nhm.org/guana/bvi-invt/bvi-surv/crus-inf.htm This link will take you to a page with an introduction to the Crustacea. From this page you can navigate to various groups of crustaceans. The groups that you're interested in are the Maxillopoda (barnacles) and Decapoda (crabs). At the very bottom of the Decapoda page there's a link to the Infraorder Brachyura, which are the true crabs. At the top of the Decapoda page you'll find a link to the Malacostraca, and from there you can go to a page of the Peracarida, which contains the amphipods and isopods.

2. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/crustace.htm This is the page on crustaceans for the British Marine Life Study Society. It has information and pictures of several types of crustaceans; you can navigate to sites for the specific taxa you want.

3. http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/amphipods.htm This site contains a lot of info about general morphology, life cycles, and habits of amphipods. There are also links to photos and additional references.

4. http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=36 And finally, a site for isopods.

The following pages are devoted to horseshoe crabs. There's a surprising amount of good information about these animals on the Internet. I did a quick Google search for "horseshoe crab" and got these sites:

http://www.horseshoecrab.org/nh/hist.html
http://beach-net.com/horseshoe/Bayhorsecrab.html
http://www.assateague.com/horsesho.html

Good luck with your report!

Allison J. Gong
Mad Scientist


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