--- title: "Crustaceans (Crustacea) | Evolutionary Clade | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Calcified chitin armor, multi-jointed appendages, and sonic cavitation claw strikes. Explore 15 species in the Crustaceans evolutionary lineage." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/icon-512.png" --- # Crustaceans (*Crustacea*) > Calcified chitin armor, multi-jointed appendages, and sonic cavitation claw strikes. Crustaceans are the armored heavy machinery of oceans and shores. Encased in biomineralized chitin exoskeletons reinforced with calcium carbonate, they sport segmented limbs specialized for crushing, swimming, filtering, and striking with the force of bullets. ## Key Evolutionary Adaptations - Mantis shrimp spring-loaded dactyl clubs accelerate at 10,000 g, vaporizing water bubbles to create 4,500-degree cavitation heat. - Pistol shrimp snap asymmetrical claws shut to fire sound shockwaves exceeding 210 decibels that stun passing fish. - Coconut crabs generate claw pinching forces exceeding 3,300 newtons, cracking open hard tropical coconuts with ease. ## Member Species (15 Creatures) - [American Lobster](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/american-lobster/) (*Homarus americanus*) - **Superpower**: Two different claws, a crusher for pulverizing shells and a ripper for tearing soft flesh. - **Musical Match**: AC/DC (Classic Hard Rock & Southern Blues) - [Antarctic Krill](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/antarctic-krill/) (*Euphausia superba*) - **Superpower**: An estimated 400 million tonnes in the Southern Ocean, photophores on muscular stalks that aim their light away from incoming light, and the ability to shrink, burning its own body protein as fuel, when food is scarce in winter. - **Musical Match**: Tycho (Glacial Ambient & Drone Soundscapes) - [Atlantic Blue Crab](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/atlantic-blue-crab/) (*Callinectes sapidus*) - **Superpower**: Rear legs shaped like paddles, built for swimming - **Musical Match**: Wolf Alice (90s Grunge & Heavy Alt-Rock) - [Calanus Copepod](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/calanus-copepod/) (*Calanus finmarchicus*) - **Superpower**: Stores energy in a large oil sac of wax esters - **Musical Match**: Steve Roach (Glacial Ambient & Drone Soundscapes) - [Coconut Crab](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/coconut-crab/) (*Birgus latro*) - **Superpower**: An estimated 3,300-newton claw pinch for a 4-kilogram crab, calculated from measurements on wild animals, enough to beat the bite force of most living land predators, alligators excepted. - **Musical Match**: Fela Kuti (Afrobeat) - [Common Hermit Crab](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-hermit-crab/) (*Pagurus bernhardus*) - **Superpower**: Rapping on a rival's shell to try to evict the owner and take its home - **Musical Match**: The Winstons (Classic Funk, Soul & Disco) - [Common Pill Bug](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-pill-bug/) (*Armadillidium vulgare*) - **Superpower**: Curls into a ball when squeezed or shaken - **Musical Match**: Oasis (Britpop & 90s Madchester) - [Giant Isopod](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/giant-isopod/) (*Bathynomus giganteus*) - **Superpower**: A big body that can hold large fat reserves, which may help it fast when food is scarce and sporadic. - **Musical Match**: Mortiis (Dungeon Synth & Dark Fantasy) - [Goose Barnacle](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/goose-barnacle/) (*Lepas anatifera*) - **Superpower**: Makes a glue whose molecular adhesion differs from every other permanently gluing marine animal studied to date - **Musical Match**: Air (Trip-Hop & Velvet Downtempo) - [Japanese Spider Crab](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/japanese-spider-crab/) (*Macrocheira kaempferi*) - **Superpower**: Longest Legspan of Any Living Arthropod - **Musical Match**: Justice (Industrial Rock & Cyberpunk) - [Peacock Mantis Shrimp](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/mantis-shrimp/) (*Odontodactylus scyllarus*) - **Superpower**: A club strike that hits twice, and eyes that rotate to read polarized light - **Musical Match**: Goran Bregović (Balkan Brass & Romani Folk Riot) - [Red King Crab](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/red-king-crab/) (*Paralithodes camtschaticus*) - **Superpower**: Young crabs travel in pods of tens of thousands - **Musical Match**: Pelican (Blackgaze & Atmospheric Post-Metal) - [Signal Crayfish](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/signal-crayfish/) (*Pacifastacus leniusculus*) - **Superpower**: Highly resistant to the crayfish plague - **Musical Match**: Ladytron (Dance-Punk & Electroclash) - [Tiger Pistol Shrimp](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/pistol-shrimp/) (*Alpheus bellulus*) - **Superpower**: A claw whose plunger-and-socket mechanism fires a cavitating water jet; in a related snapping shrimp, the bubble it creates collapses at temperatures of at least 5,000 kelvin and flashes with light. - **Musical Match**: The Dillinger Escape Plan (Mathcore & Chaotic Noise) - [Water Flea](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/water-flea/) (*Daphnia pulex*) - **Superpower**: Some clones grow neckteeth in response to chemical cues from the predator Chaoborus - **Musical Match**: Caribou (Future Garage & Deep Electronica) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://animaltracks.wiki/clades/crustaceans/#collection", "name": "Crustaceans (Crustacea)", "description": "Calcified chitin armor, multi-jointed appendages, and sonic cavitation claw strikes.", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/clades/crustaceans/", "mainEntity": { "@type": "ItemList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "American Lobster", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/american-lobster/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Antarctic Krill", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/antarctic-krill/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Atlantic Blue Crab", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/atlantic-blue-crab/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Calanus Copepod", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/calanus-copepod/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Coconut Crab", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/coconut-crab/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "name": "Common Hermit Crab", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-hermit-crab/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "name": "Common Pill Bug", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-pill-bug/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "name": "Giant Isopod", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/giant-isopod/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "name": "Goose Barnacle", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/goose-barnacle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "name": "Japanese Spider Crab", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/japanese-spider-crab/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "name": "Peacock Mantis Shrimp", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/mantis-shrimp/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "name": "Red King Crab", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/red-king-crab/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "name": "Signal Crayfish", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/signal-crayfish/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "name": "Tiger Pistol Shrimp", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/pistol-shrimp/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "name": "Water Flea", "url": "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/water-flea/" } ] } } ] } ```