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Portunus is a genus of crabs which includes several important species for fisheries, such as the blue swimming crab and the Gazami crab. [3] Other species, such as the three-spotted crab are caught as bycatch. [4] Fossil of Portunus convexus. The genus Portunus contains 13 extant species and another 26 species known only from fossils.
Blue crab escaping from the net along the Core Banks of North Carolina.. Callinectes sapidus (from the Ancient Greek κάλλος,"beautiful" + nectes, "swimmer", and Latin sapidus, "savory"), the blue crab, Atlantic blue crab, or, regionally, the Maryland blue crab, is a species of crab native to the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and introduced internationally.
The oldest fossil crustaceans are in the Cambrian. The group experienced a significant radiation in the oceans during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. The above photo depicts a ~freshly dead female blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. Info. from Witherington & Witherington (2007): "Blue crabs are swimming crabs in the Family Portunidae.
Portunus pelagicus, also known as the blue crab, blue swimmer crab, blue manna crab and flower crab is a species of large crab found in the Indo-Pacific, including off the coasts Indonesia, [1] Malaysia, [2] Cambodia, [3] Thailand, [4] the Philippines, [5] and Vietnam; [6] and in the intertidal estuaries around most of Australia and east to New Caledonia.
The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 extant species in around 2,700 genera, with around 3,300 fossil species. [1] Nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp (about 3,000 species) and Anomura including hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, squat lobsters (about 2500 species) making up the bulk of the remainder. [1]
Chesapeake blue crab: western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico Callinectes similis Williams, 1966: lesser blue crab or dwarf crab: Western Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico from the United States to Colombia. Callinectes toxotes Ordway, 1863: Eastern Pacific
The oldest known true crabs are Eoprosopon klugi and Eocarcinus praecursor from the Early to Middle Jurassic. [5] [6] While that fossil crab, and a few other Jurassic species, establish that crabs existed in older time periods, crabs did not truly diversify into numerous species until the beginning of the Cretaceous. [3]
After an analysis of new fossil material, the subgenera were elevated to the rank of genus, and three new genera were erected. [3] Most of the family's current diversity is found in temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere .