Cretaceous crab revolution
Evolutionary diversification event during the Cretaceous period From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cretaceous crab revolution was a major diversification event of brachyuran crabs (also known as true crabs) that took place during the Cretaceous Period, from 145 to 66 million years ago.[1][2] Nearly 80% of modern groups of crabs originated during this event.[3] The Cretaceous crab revolution is a smaller component of the greater Mesozoic marine revolution.[4]
The oldest known true crabs are Eoprosopon klugi and Eocarcinus praecursor from the Early to Middle Jurassic.[5][6] While that fossil crab, and a few other Jurassic species, establish that crabs existed in older time periods, crabs did not truly diversify into numerous species until the beginning of the Cretaceous.[3] During this time, crabs evolved into many different body plans and lifestyles, including the carcinized body shape like that of blue crabs that many people are familiar with.[7][8] At the same time, many families of crabs evolved away from the carcinized body plan, termed decarcinization.[1][2] The Cretaceous crab revolution also witnessed the evolution of more unusual body forms in crabs, including the enigmatic Callichimaera perplexa.[1] This rapid diversification allowed true crabs to inhabit many different environments including fresh water environments, coral reefs, swimming within the water column, and many others.[3] Cretaceous crabs exhibit expert shell-breaking behavior with powerful claws (the left claw is smaller than the right) (Dietl & Vega, 2008).
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
