Yesterday I was swimming in the marina's pool and I found this hermit crab at the bottom of the pool. I picked it up and ran into the bathroom and washed it off. I found out that the crab was dead. The chlorine killed it. So, I pulled the crab out of it's shell and discovered it had a soft body inside the shell.
I asked my mom if we could study the crab. So today, I went online and looked up the anatomy of a hermit crab. These are my findings:
Abdomen = Belly
Telson = The tip of the tail
Gonopores = Female
No Gonopores = Male
Both male and female have 5 pairs of legs and groom their gills.
Males have a smooth tail while females have tiny hairs called pleopods.
Hermit Crabs can live up to 40+ years.
My hermit crab turned out to be a female with noticeable gonopores and pleopods.
This was the most fun I have had doing a science project.
This is the website I used as a reference. Click on the link to see some cool photos. I will post my photos soon.
http://www.hermitcrabpatch.com/Hermit-Crab-Anatomy-a/136.htm
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