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Spanner Crab

Crustaceans

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The spanner crab is found in the coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, Japan and Southeast Asia, named for its flattened, spanner-shaped claws. Unlike most crabs it has a smooth, egg-shaped shell and burrows backward into sandy seafloor sediment, leaving only its eyes and antennae exposed, moving mainly by walking sideways or backward beneath the sand, and it supports a commercial fishery in Australia and parts of Asia.

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