Alaskan King Crab Classification
The Alaskan king crab, whose species name is Paralithodes camtschatica, has a range that ventures much farther south than the name would suggest. Their range extends south to the coastal waters of Japan. Physical features and biological functions are the main characteristics that scientists use to scientifically classify the Alaskan king crab.
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Kingdom Animalia
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Alaskan king crabs are a type of animal, the first and most basic of the classification system. Like other animals, these crabs have cells that form different body parts, must eat and digest food to survive and need two crabs, a male and a female, to reproduce. Metazoa is another name for the animal kingdom in which crabs belong.
Phylum Arthropoda
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Arthropods are all the animals that posses an exoskeleton. Insects, spiders and crabs fall into this phylum. Other characteristics of the arthropods, which are obvious on the Alaskan king crab, are the segmented body parts and multiple pairs of legs. AnimalDiversity.org also states, “most lay eggs, and development often proceeds with some form of metamorphosis” both of which are true for the Alaskan king crab.
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Class Malacostraca
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With the class malacostraca, crabs get separated from the insects and other arthropods. “All malacostracans possess five segments in the head, eight in the thorax and six in the abdomen” according to AnimalDiversity.org. Other members of this class include shrimp and lobsters.
Order Decapoda
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Translated to “10-footed” the members of the decapoda, including the Alaskan king crab, have 10 feet, or five pairs of legs. How these 10 appendages are formed is one characteristic that scientist use to further divide this order into smaller groups. The Alaskan king crab's first two appendages are formed to create pinchers with the right side usually larger than the left and the last set used in mating.
Suborder Pleocyemata
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The biology of how the Alaskan king crab rears its young is the main feature that places it in the suborder pleocyemata. The female of this species incubates its eggs for one year after fertilization. This incubation process is a defining characteristic of this suborder.
Family Lithodidae
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Characteristics that the Alaskan king crab shares with other members of the family lithodidae are their adaptation to cold ocean waters and a larval stage of development. The Alaskan king crab starts out life as a zoea, a swimming crab larva that eats plankton. After five molts, they then become a bottom dwelling crab of less than an inch and switch to eating most anything they can scavenge.
Genus Paralithodes
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The few species in the paralithodes genus are large crab. Alaskan king crab average 22 pounds and 8 to 9 inches in length as adults. This length does not account for their exceptionally long legs, which give them a massive appearance.
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