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Giant Spider Crab — printable fact sheet
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Giant Spider Crab
Macrocheira kaempferi
Macrocheira kaempferi has the greatest leg span of any arthropod that has ever lived, reaching close to 3.7 m from claw tip to claw tip, but the animal itself is far smaller than that number suggests: the carapace is only about 40 cm across, and almost the entire span is spindly…
Did you know?
- The Giant Spider Crab holds the record for the longest leg span of any marine arthropod, outstretching even the largest land spiders.
- Because the carapace does not grow after the terminal moult, an old crab accumulates a lifetime of barnacles, scars and encrusting growth, and the shell of a large male is a small ecosystem. Despite the alarming size, the crab is not aggressive and its claws, though long, are relatively weak — divers handle them routinely. Females carry more than a million tiny eggs on the abdomen, and the larvae are planktonic and utterly unlike the adult. Japanese folklore associated the crabs with the drowned Heike warriors of the sea, though that story attaches more firmly to a different, much smaller crab.
What I learned
Draw the giant spider crab
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