Portal:Crustaceans

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Robert Gurney(July 31, 1879 – March 5, 1950) was a Britishzoologistmost famous for his monographs on British Freshwater Copepoda(1931–1933) and the Larvae of Decapod Crustacea(1942). He was born in 1879 as the fourth son of John Gurney and Isabel Charlotte Gurney(later Baroness Talbot de Malahide) of Sprowston Hall, Norfolk. He went to school at Eton College, and went on to study at New College, Oxford, graduating with first class honoursin 1902. He was never associated with any institution, but worked from his home, initially in Norfolk, but later at Boars Hill. Realising the need for a specialist field station for freshwater biologyto match the marine biological stationsat Plymouthand Naples, Robert and his brother Eustace set up Great Britain's first freshwater laboratory at Sutton Broad. Gurney's two great study objects were the Copepodaand the larvaeof Decapoda(zoea larva of Homarus gammaruspictured), and his greatest works were the three-volume monographBritish Freshwater Copepoda, published by the Ray Societyin 1931–1933, and his Larvae of Decapod Crustaceapublished by the Ray Society in 1942. Gurney travelled to North Africaand Bermuda, and received material from other foreign expeditions, including the Terra Nova Expedition(1910–1913) and the Discovery Investigationsof the 1920s and 1930s.

Crustaceans (Subphylum Crustacea) form a very large group of arthropods, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm (0.004 in), to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 14 ft (4.3 m) and a mass of 44 lb (20 kg). Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult in order to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates by the possession of biramous (two-parted) limbs, and by the nauplius form of the larvae. Most crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are terrestrial (e.g. woodlice), some are parasitic (e.g. fish lice, tongue worms) and some are sessile (e.g. barnacles). The group has an extensive fossil record, reaching back to the Cambrian, and includes living fossils such as Triops cancriformis, which has existed apparently unchanged since the Triassic period. More than 10 million tons of crustaceans are produced by fishery or farming for human consumption, the majority of it being shrimps and prawns. Krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but may be the animals with the greatest biomass on the planet, and form a vital part of the food chain. Template:/box-footer | Go to random article Neotrypaea californiensis (Decapoda: Callianassidae) Neotrypaea californiensis (formerly Callianassa californiensis), known as the Bay ghost shrimp, is a species of ghost shrimp that lives on the Pacific coast of North America. It is a pale animal which grows to a length of 11.5 cm (4.5 in). One claw is bigger than the other, especially in males, and the enlarged claw is thought to have a function in mating. N. californiensis is a deposit feeder that lives in extensive burrow systems, and is responsible for high rates of bioturbation. It adversely affects oyster farms, and its numbers are controlled in some places by the application of pesticides. It carries out an important role in the ecosystem, and is used by fishermen as bait. Emerita analoga (Decapoda: Hippidae) ... that although the Pacific sand crab can only crawl and burrow backwards (pictured), it can also tread water? ... that Praunus flexuosus, the first mysid shrimp ever to be described, may have been transported to North America during World War II? ... that Calcinus tubularis is one of only two known species of hermit crab whose males and females inhabit different types of shell? ... that Petrolisthes eriomerus, when trying to escape from a predator, can cast off limbs as a diversion, with the claws of a cast limb still gripping vigorously after separation?

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Goose barnacles (order Pedunculata), such as these Lepas anatifera, are filter-feeding crustaceans that live attached to hard surfaces of rocks and flotsam in the intertidal zone.

Portal:Arthropods

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