• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Subphylum: Crustacea
  • Class: Malacostraca
  • Subclass: Eumalacostraca
  • Superorder: Eucarida
  • Order: Decapoda
  • Suborder: Pleocyemata
  • Infraorder: Brachyura
  • Family: Portunidae
  • Scientific name: Carcinus maenas
  • Norwegian: strandkrabbe

Characteristics:

The shell can be as wide as 8 cm. The front of the shell has five spikes on either sides of the eyes. The back is colored in different shades of green or brown. The underside and claws are usually yellow.

Habitat:

It is most frequent in the tidal zone and high shore pools, but is registered as deep as 200 meters.

Distribution:

This very common crab almost worldwide, is also called green crab, harbor crab, European shore-crab or simply shore crab. In Norway you will find it as far north as Troms. It is widespread in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, including Australia.