Vocabulary Words
- Exoskeleton – external skeleton that supports and protects an animal’s body.
- Zooplankton – microscopic and immature animal organisms that drift through the water.
- Benthos – community of organisms that live on the bottom of the
ocean, rivers, lakes and streams. - Benthic – living on the bottom of oceans, rivers, lakes and streams.
Fun Facts
- They are not always green! Color can be green, brown or orange depending on where they are on their shed/molt cycle.
- They are very hardy. They can live for 5 or more days out of the water.
- They are invasive. They came to this area from Europe around 1817.
- Females can lay 100,000 or more eggs at a time!
- Eggs are zooplankton at the start, then become benthic where they
spend the rest of their life. - An easy way to identify and remember the green crab is by the five
spikes on each side of their eyes. One for each letter of their name
G-R-E-E-N !