Things I Get To ID at Work, Part 10 - Pea Crab

[drhoz]

Not so much at work, as at the Xmas dinner arranged by my employers. One of the chilli mussels I was enjoying turned out to be unexpected crunchy, and what I had expected to be a fragment of mussel shell turned out to a crab, either a Zaops ( oyster crab ) or the closely related Pea Crab, genus Pinnotheres. Both genera used to be Pinnotheres, but

Comments

[time_ambassador]

D:

Just another thing to add to my list of reasons I don't eat seafood. I think if I bit into something hard and realized it was a tiny crunchy crab, I would just never eat food again ever.

[drhoz]

*grins* but what if you were eating a crab and found it had a mussel inside it?

[saciel]

b-but but it's EXTRA protein!

[drhoz]

I felt too guilty to eat it, even though it was already dead :/

[kyakki]

Going by the scarred nose, I would say female otter. :)

[drhoz]

well spotted!

[whisperkit]

I'm curious, why do females have scarred noses?

Also, icon <3

[kyakki]

Male otters will bite the nose of their partner when they mate.

(thanks! :D)

[suzu]

I had no idea these existed. Your posts are always cool and informative!

[kittenmommy]

This!

[drhoz]

thanks :)

[zero_bug]

Would you happen to be a taxonomist? :D

[drhoz]

alas no, but I have some knowledge of the discipline :)

[falnfenix]

...that explains the tiny, living crab we found inside an oyster last Christmas.

[drhoz]

yup!