Brown crab

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About Brown Crab
On its scientific name Scylla serrata brown crabs live in mangrove swamps and tidal flats. Juveniles consume zooplankton and other small mollusks and crustaceans. Adult mud crabs feed at night on mussels, scallops, small crabs and polychaete worms. They burrow backwards into the mud using their large front claws for protection. Many animals like to eat brown crabs including sharks, crocodiles, turtles, rays, octopus, heron and large fish like cod and barramundi. Like all crabs, brown crabs have ten legs. The front claws of a brown crab are large compared to the rest of the body. The last pair of legs is specialized, flattened to help the crab swim. If the large front claws are lost, they can grow again. Brown crabs have large claws and special flattened swimming paddles on their last pair of legs. These paddles will help them to swim when they are in the open sea. The hard shell that covers their body is called a ‘carapace’. The brown crabs’ carapace has nine teeth shaped points on both sides of their body. This species has just one particular spine behind each claw and only one spine on each wrist.