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Description: | Specimen of a fossil crustacean (crab), Macropthalmus latreillei, collected from unspecified rocks of Tertiary (?) age.
This fossil crab has been preserved in the soft mud in which it lived. It is a relative of the mud sentinel crabs that live on the east coast of Australia. The sentinel crabs lie partly buried in soft mud in estuaries and on muddy coasts. They have tall eyestalks that appear above the water surface to look out for predators. The crab extracts food particles out of the mud that it eats.
It is from the Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Crustacea Arthropoda | Temporal: | Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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