Crab Identification for MERE project

I thought identifying crabs using a dichotomous key would be easy, but I was wrong. The details Lauren and I had to pay attention to was difficult to tell on different species of crabs. The first time we started taking pictures of the crabs we caught for our MERE project, we thought there were only 3 species. We were so focused on using the dichotomous key to figure out which crabs were what we forgot to look at the carapace shape and claw shape and what not

A couple days later, Kevin gave us a crab identification 101 session. We learned that Hemigrapsus nudus has purple spots on the claw, Pugettia gracilis has a pinched carapace, Pugettia richii has spines on the carapace and so much more.

We had a total of 8 different species and we didn't know it! I'm glad we actually got a chance to go through each crab species and see the actual differences rather than going off of the dichotomous key. I am now a professional crab identifier (sort of)!

All in all, the MERE project is going well. I am happy with our process and I am loving all the things I am learning about crabs that I didn't know before!

Posted on October 14, 2012 07:54 PM by huangt3