The mystery of a bizarre crab that is always found clutching two sea anemones in its claws may have been solved: The crabs clone their poufy accessories, new research suggests. Lybia leptochelis, also known as a boxer crab or a pom-pom crab, will fight over the sea anemones and then...

Things weren't looking good for a swimmer crab under the glare of two divers' spotlights in Monterey Bay, California. The crab was being doggedly pursued by a red octopus and couldn't seem to make an escape. And then, a deux ex machina of an ending: In swooped a harbor seal...

A new species of pistol shrimp — small, burrowing crustaceans with one oversize claw — doesn't live on the dark side of the moon, nor is it a lost soul swimming in a fishbowl. Nevertheless, the researchers who described the shrimp proposed a name for the new species that is...

Between their hard shells and strong pincers, American lobsters are built to fight and keep other creatures away. But does this combative, standoffish nature extend to mating? There are two general groups of animals called lobsters: clawed lobsters, which live in high-latitude, cold-water regions; and spiny lobsters, which are clawless...

Crabs drugged with Prozac are behaving badly, or at least in risky ways, new research finds. The researchers weren't interested in finding the right dose of the antidepressant (generic name fluoxetine hydrochloride) to treat anxious or depressed crabs. Rather they were interested in seeing how the drug, which makes its...

Some male animals are known for busting a move in elaborate mating dances to woo prospective mates. But some crab males perform a special dance for the males they've just defeated in combat, to discourage them from coming back for more, according to a new study. Scientists had previously observed...

Scientists have discovered a new species of hobbit shrimp that shares more than a feature or two with the protagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel. The diminutive size and eight hairy limbs of the critter, dubbed Odontonia bagginsi, recall Bilbo Baggins, the reluctant halfling hero who found a...

Shrimp-like creature (Image credit: Copyright Royal Ontario Museum)The ancient creature Waptia fieldensis had a shrimp-like tail. [Read more about the shrimp-like Cambrian critter] Mustache-like antenna (Image credit: Marianne Collins/Copyright Royal Ontario Museum)An illustration showing W. fieldensis's rounded, paddle-like appendages and its spiny upper legs. It also had a mustache-shaped pair...

An aggressive breed of green crab is invading Maine's waters. The crabs (Carcinus maenas) threaten blue mussels, soft-shell clams and the eelgrass beds off the state's rocky coast. The crustaceans are also just plain nasty: Researchers who work with the crabs say that instead of hiding from threats, the critters...

SeaWorld put out a stunning video last week of a Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) cracking open its outer shell and seeming to clamber out of itself. The molting process captured in the video out of San Diego is natural. As NOAA Fisheries explains on its website, crabs cannot grow...

An international team of astronauts has discovered a new species of blind, colorless, cave-dwelling crustacean — and they didn't even have to leave Earth to find it. The fingernail-size crustacean, named Alpioniscus sideralis after the Latin word for stellar, was discovered scuttling about a pitch-black pool in the Sa Grutta...

Giant eyes (Image credit: Oksana Vernygora/University of Alberta)Here is an illustration of Callichimaera perplexa, quite possibly the strangest looking crab that ever lived. [Read more about the strange crab] Crabby fossil (Image credit: Daniel Ocampo R., Vencejo Films)Yale paleontologist Javier Luque found C. perplexa in Colombia in 2005. Since then,...

An ancient crab that lived during the dinosaur age was so strange, paleontologists are calling it the platypus of the crab world. This newly discovered critter — named Callichimaera perplexa, which means perplexing beautiful chimera — had a hodgepodge of body parts. That name references the mythical chimera from Greek...

As if preparing for battle, some shrimplike creatures suit up in aluminum armor to survive the ravages of the deepest part of the oceans, a new study finds. Amphipods are little crustaceans found in most waters on Earth. One species, Hirondellea gigas, dwells at the bottom of the sea —...

It's no mystery why natural selection favors bluish-green lobsters: Individuals that live inconspicuously on the seafloor are more likely to survive and pass their genes on to offspring. Lobsters live in rocky or muddy areas, said Anita Kim, an assistant scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston. They rely...