Classification, Biodiversity and Conservation of Marine Commercial Crabs of India

One of the best known and most intensely studied groups is the true crabs of the infraorder Brachyura. Brachyuran crabs belong to the Order Decapoda, the most diverse group of crustaceans alive today (Ng et al., 2008). The known size of crabs now ranges from a maximum leg span of approximately 4 m in the giant Japanese spider crab Macrocheira kaempferi and a maximum carapace width of 46 cm in the giant Tasmanian crab Pseudocarcinus gigas to a minimum of 1.5 mm across the carapace for a mature ovigerous female pinnotherid, Nannotheres moorei, the smallest known species of crab. Every living thing is classified into one of the three domains