Portunidae

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Portunidae
Liocarcinus depurator.jpg
Liocarcinus depurator
Scientific classification
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Portunidae

Subfamilies
  • Caphyrinae Guérin, 1832
  • Carcininae MacLeay, 1838
  • Carupinae Paul'son, 1875
  • Podophthalminae Dana, 1851
  • Polybiinae Ortmann, 1893
  • Portuninae Rafinesque, 1815
  • Thalamitinae Paul'son, 1875

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Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs.

Description

Portunid crabs are characterised by the flattening of the fifth pair of legs into broad paddles, which are used for swimming.[2] This ability, together with their strong, sharp claws, allows many species to be fast and aggressive predators.[2]

Examples

Its members include many well-known shoreline crabs, such as the European shore crab (Carcinus maenas), blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), velvet crab (Necora puber) and lady crab (Ovalipes ocellatus). Two genera in the family are contrastingly named Scylla and Charybdis; the former contains the economically important species black crab (Scylla serrata) and Scylla paramamosain.

Taxonomy

The circumscription of the family varies, with some authors treating "Carcinidae", "Catoptridae" and "Macropipidae" as separate families,[1] and others considering them subfamilies of a wider Portunidae.[3] Swimming crabs reach their greatest species diversity in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Extinct genera are marked with an obelisk.

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Caphyrinae Guérin, 1832
Carcininae MacLeay, 1838
Carupinae Paul’son, 1875
Podophthalminae Dana, 1851
Polybiinae Ortmann, 1893
Portuninae Rafinesque, 1815
Thalamitinae Paul’son, 1875
incertae sedis

References

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  2. 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links

  • Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
  • Data related to Portunidae at Wikispecies