The mighty elbow crab

The Elbow Crab is from the family Parthenopidae, which are bought together by their shared characteristic of having big elbows.

It is very difficult to identify species, and not much is known about the differences. They are very small crabs, with their bodies often only measuring 1-2cm, although their big old arms increase this a lot.

When startled, they spread their arms in what is thought to be a deterrent to possible predators. We certainly wouldn’t mess with them, that is, is we weren’t as humans many hundreds of times their size.

They are native to many coasts around East Asia and are particularly fond of hiding in seaweed, which makes finding these small crabs hard.

The elbow crab, with it’s funky arms is a sight to behold and has even made its way onto the postage stamps of Taiwan!