The life of crustacea / by W.T. Calman.

  • William Thomas Calman
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life of crustacea / by W.T. Calman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    137/392 page 89
    —the sea-bottom is perhaps the most densely popu- lated of all parts of the earth’s surface. Nowhere, at all events, do we find so wide a range of animal forms, from the simplest organisms (Protozoa) up to highly-organized Vertebrates. Nowhere, perhaps, is the struggle for existence more keen, and it is not without justice that some naturalists have regarded the shallow waters of the sea as one of the great battle-fields of life,” where, in the long course of evolution, the main branches of the animal kingdom have had their origin. Conspicuous among the animals of this region are Crustacea of all sorts and sizes. To identify all the species that may be obtained in a single haul of the dredge in British seas would sometimes be a hard task even for the most expert student of the group. Our present purpose, however, is not to compile a faunistic catalogue, but merely to give some idea of the endless diversity of form, and to note a few of the “shifts for a living”—of the ways in which structure and habit are adapted to the conditions of life in the Crustacea of the shore and of shallow water. Though it might seem that the heavily armoured Lobsters and the larger Crabs would be sufficiently protected against most enemies when once they have attained their full size, yet they are preyed upon by the Octopus, which seizes them with its suckers and pierces their armour with its powerful beak, injecting
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