Crabs & shells ID

[kaiserfranzgirl]

Hi

I recently went to St. Mary's Bay on the Kent Coast and found a collection of crabs and shells. I wondered if you could help me to identify them? I know there are some mussels, a mermaid's purse, a cuttlefish, some limpets, masked crab shells and some sort of razors??

thanks

[Marineboy]

You have a common shore crab in there too. Mermaid's purse from a dogfish, fish vertebrae also. Possibly two species of razor shells, common limpets and slipper limpets. Two species of cockles - the common cockle and the spiny cockle. Scallop, mussels, tellins, big sand gapers, netted dog whelks, and common whelks. Barnacle clusters, drift wood and yes the cuttle fish bone.
There is also a pincer from another crab, which is neither a masked crab nor the common shore - can't quite see it, but it looks like a bleached pincer from a large hermit crab, just above what appears to be a burrowing echinoid or heart urchin, far bottom right.
Bet you had fun collecting that lot.

[Jim Ford]

I'll bet they're starting to smell now!
;^)

Jim

[kaiserfranzgirl]

thank you so much- I spent ages trying to find that on the net!

Yes they are smelling- i keep them outside hehe

I've got a couple more photos of the things you were unsure of.

[Marineboy]

First photo is of a heart urchin, related to the sea urchins and starfish. These live buried in sand using spade like bristles to dig.

The other photo:

Top left, and top right with the red on it, I was right, is our largest hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus. At this size they will live offshore and inhabit large whelk shells.

There seem to be four claws from the masked crab, Corystes cassivelaunus, all from male crabs - the male has much longer claws than the females.

Top right is a claw from our commonest crab, the green shore crab, Carcinus maenas.

The claw on the bottom is from the harbour crab, Liocarcinus depurator, - a clean looking swimming crab in cream and brown, quite different to the shore or velvet swimming crabs.

The big leg in the middle of the photo, with its mottled appearance is interesting. The velvet swimming crab has a certain amount of mottling, but its different to this. Its obviously from a large crab, but not the edible crab Cancer pagurus, nor the spider crab Maja squinado, as it's too lightweight for them. If I had to guess, ignoring the colouration, I might say a big common shore crab. As a leg it is incomplete and missing another section so could be up to half the length again which comparing it to the masked crab claws, would make it a very big shore crab. But then, having once found a huge shore crab claw its certainly possible. Towards the claw end of the leg it appears quite worn. Maybe if it wasn't, maybe it would be easier to identify positively and might even turn out to be from a velvet swimming crab.

The "half" of a crab on the left hand side I might be tempted to label the common spider crab, Hyas araneus due to its colour and apparent elongated shape, but its hard to tell from the photo. The position of the mouth maxilliped and the claw and legs in a line it suggests it might be a crab of an elongated shape. Since you have claws of male masked crabs there is also the possibility its a female of that species. But difficult to tell from a photo.

As to them smelling - ants do a wonderful job of cleaning out some specimens, and milton fluid for cleaning babies bottles does an equally good job of sterilizing and cleaning them up.

[kaiserfranzgirl]

Thanks so much again, this is really facinating stuff!!! I never imagined they would be parts of so many different crabs.

Here are some more photos hehe.

I'm going to kent again this weekend so hopefully i'll be able to get some more