Common Prawn

The common prawn, Palaemon serratus, first described by Thomas Pennant in 1777, is a shrimp of the family Palaemonidae and the largest native shrimp or prawn species found around the British Isles, reaching about 100 millimeters in length. It has a curved rostrum that splits at the tip, with 6 to 7 teeth along its upper edge and 4 to 5 on the lower edge, and a pinkish brown body marked with reddish patterns. It ranges across the Atlantic from Denmark to Mauritania and through the Mediterranean and Black Seas, living in groups in rocky crevices to depths of about 40 meters, typically surviving 3 to 5 years with populations peaking in autumn.