The Crab That Looks Like a Frog

(Image: The Natural History Museum/Alamy)

Ranina ranina is the largest and best-known of the frog crabs. Its long, narrow body and paddle-like limbs look uncannily frog-like, but its hard shell and 10 legs mark it out as a crab, and a true one at that, rather than a crab only in name like a hermit crab. Most true crabs have bodies at least as wide as they are long, and they scuttle sideways. Frog crabs, however, are slimmer and move forward and back.
R. ranina pops out of its hiding places to scavenge the remains of dead marine animals falling from above, but they sometimes also catch small fish swimming close to the bottom.



Source: newscientist.com